





^ 






•w>' 


















■^. ,^^' 



'^. c<^ 



V •> 






v-. 



.-^^ 



v.,*^' , 




\ s^'" 


^%. 








>:^ 








^^^ v^ 



\1. Vi- 



V- ,v 






•^. .-^^ 






<■>" 









.0' 



-^4V. ■^ -l^ 



'^^- V^ 



""^^.^f 



\<'' '^^. 









■0* 



.0 



%: 



"bo^ 


-'z- y^ 








"' \^ 


*■ 

^^. 






^^'^ 










/: 


-^.^ :^^ 




%. 


V* : 












\ ' 
/^'■■y. 







\'^ ■'K v^' 



C§ai-ader ait)j Hublit Swbtas 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 



PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



By WM. M. THAYER, 

Author of tho " Pioneer Boy," " Youth's History of the liebellion," &c. 



BOSTON: 

WALKER, WISE, AND COMPANY, 

245, Washington Street. 

1864. 






Ectored, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864, by 

WALKER, WISE, AND COMI'ANY, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



Z^ O^ "S^ &" 



boston: 

stereotyped and printed by john wilsos ant> sos, 

No, 5, Water Street. 



PREFACE. 



The child is ever father of the man. It is our pur- 
pose to show, in this volume, how the inherent qual- 
ities of industry, honesty, perseverance, and cheerftil 
devotion to duty, which characterized the Pioneer 
Boy, and were the means, under Providence, of his 
elevation to the Peesidency, have sustained him in 
that high office, and enabled him to bear the un- 
equalled cares and responsibilities it entailed upon 
him. 

The hero of this book being now before the people 
as a candidate for re-election to the office he has so 
ably filled, we present, first, a review of his char- 
acter, and an estimate of his public services, showing 
wherein Abraham Lincoln is pre-eminently worthy 
the suffi:'ages of American citizens ; secondly, a his- 
tory of his early life, and of the scenes through whicli 
lie his course, from the floorless log-cabin to the 
White House at Washington. 

The work therefore appeals to all readers from 
four to fourscore ; and cannot be read without inter- 
est and profit, simply from the facts it contains. 

[iii] 



CHARACTER AND PUBLIC SERVICES. 



CONTENTS. 



Character and Public Services of Abraham 

Lincoln . . . . . . 9 

BOYHOOD AND MANHOOD. — ELECTED PRESIDENT. — SPEECH AT 
SPEINGFIELD. — HIS REQUEST SUBLIME. — SPEECH AT NEW YORK. — 
BEFORE OHIO SENATE. — HIS WELCOME AN OVATION. — ATTEMPT TO 
ASSASSINATE HIM. — HIS INAUGURATION AND ADDRESS. — ITS ELO- 
QUENT APPEAL TO ENEMIES. — HIS STYXE CLEAR AND FORCIBLE. — 
DEEP INTEREST IN THE SOLDIERS. — VISITS LIEUT. WORDEN. — 
VISITS THE WOUNDED. — HIS r^TER^^EW WITH REBELS. — AMIABLE 
QUALITIES. — INTERVIEW WITH THREE LITTLE GIRLS. — COUNTING 
GREENBACKS FOR A NEGRO. — RECEIVING A TRACT. — A DESCRIPTION 
OF HIM BY A CLOSE OBSERVER. — HIS DAILY' LIFE, BY " PERLEY." — 
DESCRIPTION OF HIM BY AN ENGLISH WRITER. — A REMARKABLE 
EULOGiUM. — HIS SINGLENESS OF PURPOSE, AND CONSISTENCY'. — 
NEVER VACILLATES. — HIS LETTER TO A. G. HODGES, ESQ. — WORDS 
OF MRS. STOWE. — HIS MARKED HONESTY. — HE STUDIES TO FOLLOW 
PROVIDENCE. — LETTER FROM A DEMOCRAT. — HE HAS NO VICES. — 
A TEMPERANCE 5IAN. — HIS INTELLECTUAL POWER. — WORSTED JUDGE 
DOUGLAS. — TRIBUTE TO THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. — 
OPINION OF SENATOR TRUMBULL. — EULOGY BY T^VO FRENCH STATES- 
MEN. — OPINION OF AN ENGLISH WRITER. — HIS REPARTEES AND ANEC- 
DOTES. — HJS ADMINISTRATION, AND DIFFICULTIES TO OVERCOME. — 
HIS GLORIOUS SUCCESS. — CHARGES AGAINST HIM ANSWERED. — WRIT 
OF HABEAS CORPUS. — ARBITRARY ARRESTS. — LINCOLN A GREATER 
GENERAL THAN m'CLELLAN. — HIS ACTS AND LETTERS. — HIS ANTI- 
SLAVERY VIEWS. — PROGRESS OF FREEDOM. — WORDS OF GARRISON 
AND HON. MR. ARNOLD. — FREMONT'S AND HUNTER'S PROCLAMA- 
TIONS. — MR. LINCOLN'S TOLERANT POLICY. — RECONSTRUCTION. — THE 
people's CHOICE FOR PRESIDENT. — VOICE FROM THE ARMY". — GEN. 
NEAL DOW'S SPEECH. — HORACE GREELEY'S INCONSISTENCY. — MR. 
LINCOLN NOT AN OFFICE-SEEKER. — OUR FOREIGN FRIENDS DESIRE 
HIS RE-ELECTION. — SPEECH OF PETER SINCLAIR, ESQ., OF SCOTLAND, 
AND OF HON. GEORGE THOMPSON, OF ENGLAND. 



LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



CHAEACTEE AKD PUBLIC SERVICES. 



ELECTION AND INAUGURATION. 

The public services of Abraham Lincoln, as President of 
the United States, are now a matter of history. The last 
year of his official term is passing away with the shock of 
battle and the promise of victory. It is well to pause, and 
consider how ably he has guided the Ship of State through 
the storm and breakers of civil war. Surely the successes 
of his early life were harbingers of triumphs in this period 
of sanguinary strife. The elements of character that 
adorned his youth, and blossomed into golden manhood, 
brightening the star of his fame as a lawyer, legislator, 
statesman, and patriot, prefigured his successful adminis- 
tration of national affairs as the ruler of the American 
RepubUc. 

Abraham Lincoln was elected to the office of President 
of the United States on the 6th of November, 1860. On 
the eleventh day of February, 1861, he left his home in 
Springfield, 111., where twenty-five eventful years of his 
life had been spent, to proceed to Washington. Thousands 
of his fellow-citizens, of all parties and sects, to whom he 
was endeared by the strongest ties of friendship, assembled 
at the depot to bid him farewell. They revered and loved 
1* [9] 



10 THE PIONEER BOY AS PEESIDENT. 

him as an elder brother ; and, while they rejoiced that the 
American people hud conferred the highest honor upon 
him, they sorrowed that the parting hour had arrived. 

With deep emotion, almost forbidding utterance, Mr. 
Lincohi thus addressed the multitude before his depart- 
ure: — 

" My friends, no one can appreciate the sadness I feel at this 
parting. To tliis people I owe all that I am. Here I have lived 
more than a quarter of a century. Here my children were born, 
and here one of them lies buried. I know not how soon I shall see 
you again. A duty devolves upon me which is perhaps greater 
than that which has devolved upon any other man since the days 
of Washington. He never would have succeeded, except for the 
aid of Divme Providence, upon which he at all times relied. I feel 
that / cannot succeed without the same divine aid which sust<ained 
him ; and in the same Ahniglity Being I place my reliance for sup- 
port ; and I hope that you, my friends, will all pray that I may 
receive that divine assistance, without which I cannot succeed, but 
with which success is certain. Again I bid you all an affectionate 
farewell." 

Many eyes were bedimmed with tears when he closed. 
Many hearts struggled with emotion. Many a silent 
" God bless you ! " went up to heaven as the cars moved 
away. How many earnest prayers arose from the altars 
of Springfield, at the close of that day, for the President 
elect, whom the people honored and loved ! They remem- 
bered his simple request, which no other than a sincerely 
good man would have dared to make in the circumstances ; 
and hundreds of fervent spirits besought Him, who pre- 
served and guided Washington, to sustain and direct their 
friend in his new and trying position. 

There is much of true greatness in this single request of 
Abraham Lincoln. He who was reared in a loor-cabin is 



ELECTION AND INAUGURATION. 11 

not lifted up by pride now that he is going to the White 
House. The President is as humble and familiar as the 
Pioneer Boy. His heart is oppressed by a deep 'sense of 
his responsibilities. It is not only a sacred, but also a 
momentous tnist to which he is called. He realizes the 
solemn reality. " A duty devolves upon me which is per- 
haps greater than that which has devolved upon any other 
man since the days of Washington," he said. Surely that 
is responsibility enough ! And yet he should not have 
excepted Washington ; for even the " Father of his Coun- 
try" did not take the Presidential chair under circum- 
stances so momentous and appalling. Those were peaceful 
days in comparison with this fearful period of civil war. 
Washington manned the ship, and spread her sails. Lin- 
coln took the helm in a gale that threatened to tear her 
canvas to shreds ; and, with the solemn charge to save the 
ship and her precious freight, pilots her over dangerous 
rocks and through stormy waves. As he himself most 
beautifully expressed it, in reply to the Mayor of New- 
York City, who welcomed him to that metropolis, when he 
was on his journey to Washington, — 

" There is nothing that could erer bring me to willingly consent 
to the destruction of this Union, under which not only the great 
commercial city of New York, but the whole country, acquired its 
greatness, except it be the purpose for which the Union itself was 
formed. I understand the ship to be made for the carrying and the 
preservation of the cargo ; and, so long as the ship can be saved 
with the cargo, it should never be abandoned, unless it fails the 
possibility of its preservation and shall cease to exist, except at 
the risk of throwing overboard both freight and passengers. So 
long, then, as it is possible that the prosperity and the liberties of 
the people be preserved in this Union, it shall be my purpose, at 
all times, to use all my powers to aid in its perpetuation." 



12 THE PIONEER BOY AS PRESIDENT. 

The welcome exteudeil to Mr. Lincoln on his journey to 
the capital of the Ifoited States was a perfect ovation. 
The people crowded to meet and greet him at every stop- 
ping-place ; and he was welcomed to the cities through 
which he passed with music and the ringing of bells, the 
■waving of banners and the peal of cannon. Yet amid all 
these festivities, and demonstrations of joy, his mind labored 
with the fearful problem of national existence that loomed 
up in the future ; and he repeated again and again, to the 
multitudes who thronged to see him, the sentiments which 
he addressed to the President of the Ohio Senate : — 

" It is true, as has been said by the President of the Senate, that 
very great responsibility rests upon me in tlie position to wliich tlie 
votes of tlie American people have called me. I am deeply sensi- 
ble of that weighty responsibility. I cannot but know, what you 
aU know, that without a name, perhaps without a reason why I 
should have a name, there has fallen upon me a task such as did 
not rest upon the " Father of his Country ; " and, so feeling, I can- 
not but turn, then, and look to the American people, and to that 
God who has never forsaken them." 

With such feelings of patriotic trust, courage, and hope, 
he became President of the United States. Enemies were 
on his track, and plots were laid to assassinate him. He 
narrowly escaped from the bloody grasp of a traitorous 
mob, in his journey through Baltimore, by clandestinely 
going tlu'ough the city by night. All around him were 
those who would gladly have seconded any secret measure 
to murder him. Their hands were ready for evil deeds, 
and blood was in their hearts. Yet no person was cooler 
than Mr. Lincoln. No man had so much to fear, yet no 
man was more fearless. He had counted the cost, and had 
resolved to live or perish with the Union. 



ELECTION AND INAUGURATION. 13 

On that fearful night of the 18th of April, 1861, when it 
was confidently expected that armed traitors from Virginia 
Avould seize the arsenal at Harper's Ferry, and thence 
make a descent upon Washington, the President was calm, 
thoughtful, and determined. His evident coolness inspired 
the hearts of patriots in the imperilled capital with greater 
courage ; and as two hundred of them secretly entered a 
church in the rear of WiUard's Hotel, where they pledged 
themselves to die, if need be, for their bleeding country, 
they knew that a brave, unfaltering patriot, capable of a 
heroic life or a martyr's death, thought and prayed beneath 
the roof of the White House. With such a chieftain, in 
such a cause, it was not strange that loyal men resolved, 
with true Spartan courage, to defend the capital, or flow 
the streets with blood. 

The President, in his Inaugural Address, clearly and 
forcibly enunciated his views upon the momentous issues 
of the hour. His words were conciliatory, but firm, digni- 
fied, and resolute. Loyal hearts that had no sympathy 
with the guilty cause of the Rebellion were extremely 
gratified with the address. Traitors and their sympa- 
'thizers were displeased. Mr. Lincoln said in that 
address, — 



" I therefore consider, that, in view of the Constitution and the 
laws, the Union is unbroken ; and, to the extent of my ability, I 
sliall take care, as the Constitution expressly enjoins upon me, that 
the laws of the Union shall he faithfully executed in all the States. 
Doing this, which I deem to be a simple duty on my part, I shall 
perfectly perform it, so far as is practicable, unless my rightful 
masters, the American people, shall withhold the requisition, or, in 
some authoritative manner, direct the contrary. 

" I trust that this will not be regarded as a menace, but only as? 
2 



14 THE PIONEER BOY AS PRESIDEIST. 

the declared purpose of the Union, that it will constitutionally de- 
fend and maintain itself. 

" In doing this, there need be no bloodshed or violence ; and 
there shall be none, unless it is forced upon the national au- 
thority. 

" The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, and 
possess the property and places belonging to the Government, and collect 
the duties and imposts ; but, beyond what may be necessary for 
tliese objects, there will be no invasion, no using of force against or 
among the people anywhere." 

His Inaugural Speech closed with the following eloquent 
appeal to the enemies of the country : — 

" In yoiu" hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in 
mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The Government will 
not assail you. 

" You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggres- 
sors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the Grov- 
ernment ; while I shall have the most solemn one to ' preserve, 
protect, and defend it.' 

" I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. "We 
must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must 
not break, our bonds of affection. 

" The mystic cords of memory, stretching from every battle-field 
and patriot-grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over tliiy 
broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again 
touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our na- 
ture." 

Eloquent, beautiful, fitting words ! The most classic 
scholar who has occupied the Presidential chair never 
penned a paraprapli that excelled the above in beauty of 
conception, grandeur of sentiment, and elegance of diction. 
They challenge the scrutiny of carping critics ; and, long 
after the hand that penned them shall be palsied by death, 
History will record them with her immortal treasures. 



ELECTION AND INAUGURATION. 15 

Let those who are wont to ci;iticise the President's State 
papers, pronouncing them inelegant, coarse, without rheto- 
rical attraction, excel the foregoing if they can. The State 
papers of Abraham Lincoln, taken as a whole, were never 
excelled, and seldom equalled, by his predecessors in office. 
Posterity will so regard them, and point to them with an 
honorable pride. Their author possesses one excellence 
which distinguishes the finest writers, according to the rules 
of rhetoric ; and that is, the ability to express his thoughts 
in a concise, clear, and forcible manner. The papers of 
President Lincoln are peculiarly worthy of imitation in this 
respect. They contain no redundant words or phrases, 
and are marked by such clearness and perspicuity that the 
common people can understand them. 

True, his style is w^thout flourishes : he never made a 
mere flourish in any thing ; and Ave have reason to thank 
God for it. A President who was disposed to make a 
flourish would be disqualified for his office in such times as 
these. A matter-of-fact man is needed for this high position 
in this period of grave realities ; and such is Mr. Lincoln, 
both in the productions of his pen and the deeds of his 
life. 

We do not say that no defects are discoverable in his 
State papers ; but we do say that they are offset by so many 
excellences as to render them of small account to the un- 
prejudiced reader. " Glittering generalities " may entertain 
the promiscuous assembly, and perhaps contribute ornament 
to the popular oration ; but there is no place for them in 
the papers that emanate from the Chief Magistrate of this 
great nation. If his style be sometimes inelegant, he 
always clothes his thoughts in a clear Anglo-Saxon garb, 
and adds attractions to the whole by lively conceptions and 



16 THE PIONEER BOY AS PRESIDENT. 

winning metaphors. He ^ftener rises to genuine Saxon 
force and classic purity, than he violates the rules of rheto- 
ric or offends good taste. 

"We might quote many passages from his public docu- 
ments in support of this view ; but we shall be content with 
citing his Dedicatory Address at the consecration of the 
national cemetery at Gettysburg, reserving other illustra- 
tions of the views expressed to appear in the sequel. On 
that memorable occasion of Nov. 18, 1863, when the loyal 
nation gathered on the crimson battle-field of Gettysburg 
to pay a grateful tribute to the memory of fldlen heroes, 
the President was charged with the solemn and affecting 
duty of making the Dedicatory Address ; and his words 
were as follows, — brief, appropriate, touching, and beauti- 
ful : — 

" Fourscore and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon 
this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to 
the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are 
engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any 
nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are 
met on a great battle-tield of that war. We are met to dedicate 
a portion of it as the final resting-place of those who here gave 
their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and 
proper that we should do this. 

" But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, 
we cannot hallow, this ground. The brave men, living and dead, 
who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our power to add 
or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we 
say here ; but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, 
the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work that 
they have thus far so nobly carried on. It is rather for us to be 
here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, — that from 
these honored dead we take increased devotion to the cause for 
which they here gave the last full measure of devotion ; that we 
liere higlily resolve that the dead shall not have died in vain ; that 



ELECTIO]Sr AND INAUGURATIOiSr. 17 

the nation shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom ; and 
that the government of the people, by the people, and for the peo- 
ple, shall not perish from the earth." 

The throng of eager listeners was swayed by his stu-ring 
words. Their hearts swelled with deeper emotions as the 
speaker poured out the fervor of his own patriotic soul, 
always in full sympathy with the brave defenders of the 
country, over the nameless graves which consecrated that 
field of blood. 

" The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say 
here ; but it can never forget what they did here." 

Noble words of a true-hearted patriot ! Such honor to 
the brave does not often hallow their sleeping dust. He 
who wears the highest honors of the nation stood there to 
honor the humblest private who fell in that bloody conflict ; 
confessing, that, when his dedicatory words shall have been 
forgotten, the deeds of the heroic victors of Gettysburg will 
be remembered. His generous nalure clasped the lifeless 
forms of those who saved their country by nobly sacrificing 
themselves ; and he would recognize the obligations of the 
living to the martyred dead. 

In this honest tribute to the army, we discover, in 
addition to the high merits of the address as a literary 
production, one prominent trait of the character of 
Abraham Lincoln; viz., a just recognition of true merit 
wherever it belongs. Unlike many, who ascribe all the 
glory to a successful general, he does not conceal the fact, 
that the valiant private, by his telling strokes, gives tri- 
umph to the general's skill. Let others honor the military 
leader alone : he would honor also the braves who are led. 
No wonder that he is endeared to our loyal army ; that 
mutual love and respect is cherished between them. 



18 TIIE nONEEK BOY AS PRESIDENT. 



DEEP INTEREST IN THE SOLDIERS. 

The Christian Commission was organized to bless the 
sick and wounded soldiers, and Mr. Lincoln was among 
the first public officers to appreciate its value. George H. 
Stuart, Esq., the worthy president of it, stated at a public 
meeting in Washington last winter, that the first letter of 
recognition from any official quarter, breathing encouragi- 
ment and hope, which the society received, was from Pre- 
sident Lincoln. His feelings were so deeply interested in 
the welfare of the soldiers, that he hailed such an organiza- 
tion as a real God-send, and could not withhold from its 
officers the wai-m greeting of his heart. 

In March of the present year, the President manifested 
his deep interest in the soldiers by attending a fair for tlieir 
benefit in the city of Washington, where he made the fol- 
lowing brief speech : — •"" ' 

"Ladies and gentlemen, I appear to say but a word. This 
extraordinary war in which we are engaged falls heavily upon all 
classes of people, but the most heavily upon the soldier. For it 
has been said, ' All that a man hath will he give for liis Ufe ; ' and, 
while all contribute of their substance, the soldier puts his life at 
stake, and often yields it up in his comitry's cause. The highest 
merit, then, is due to the soldiei-. 

"In this extraordinary war, extraordinary developments have 
manifested themselves, such as have not been seen in former wars ; 
and, among these manifestations, nothing has been more remarkable 
than these fairs for the relief of suffering soldiers and their families 
And the chief agents in these fairs are the women of America. 

" I am not accustomed to the use of language of eulogy ; I 
have never studied the art of paying compliments to women : but 
I must say, that, if all that has been said by orators and poets since 
the creation of the world in praise of women were applied to the 



I DEEP INTEREST EN THE SOLDIERS. 19 

women of America, it would not do them justice for their conduct 
during the war. I will close by saying, God bless the women of 
America ! " 

When the honored commander of the " Monitor," Lieut. 
Worden, was conveyed to Washington, after the naval 
fight with the " Merrimack," in which he was severely in- 
jured, the President sought him out, to thank him, in the 
name of his country, for his heroism and success. The 
first view of his sightless eyes, and his extreme sufferings, 
well-nigh overcame the President. Grasping the soldiei-'s 
hand, while his heart swelled with emotion, and unbidden 
tears filled his eyes, he gave unequivocal proof of his 
respect and sympathy. And this is only one of many 
instances of his unfeigned attachment to the soldier, and 
his disposition to lay aside the dignities of office to do him 
honor. There have been hundreds of the sick and wounded 
from the tented field in the hospitals at Washington, who 
can bear witness to the President's pleasant smile, and word 
of encouragement, in his accustomed visits. Amid the 
pressing duties of his office, he has found time to go on 
errands of sympathy and love to the wards of the hos- 
pitals. 

A correspondent who was with the President when he 
visited the wounded soldiers at Frederick, Md., relates that 
the party passed a house in which there was a large num- 
ber of Confederate wounded men. At the request of the 
President, the party entered the building. After Mr. Lin- 
coln had viewed the scene, he remarked to the wounded 
Confederates, that " he would be pleased to take them by 
the hand, if they had no objections." He said, " The solemn 
obligations which we owe to our country and posterity 
compel the prosecution of this war ; and it followed that 



20 THE PIONEER BOY AS PRESIDENT. 

many were our enemies through uncontrollable circum- \ 
stances ; and he bore them no malice, and could take them ! 
by the hand with sympathy and good feeling." After a 
short silence, the Confederates came forward, and each 1 1 
silently but fervently shook the hand of the President. ; 
Some of their number were too severely wounded to 
rise : so the President walked forward, and took the hands 
of those who were not able to walk, and bade them be of 
good cheer, assiiring them that the best of care should be 
bestowed upon them. It was a very touching spectacle, 
and beholders wept at the interview. Most of the Con- 
federates, even, were moved to tears by this simple act of 
kindness. 

AMIABLE CHARACTER. 

Growing out of this amiable and genial nature of tlie ■ 
President are many of those acts that have endeared him 
to the country. He appears to regard his fellow-men as 
equals ; and to act upon the principle, that neither office nor 
honor can add true worth to manhood. He never appears 
to be influenced by the thought, " I am President of the 
United States," in his intercourse with men. He is as famil- 
iar, genial, and loving now as ever he was ; and he possesses 
that remarkable faculty of making everybody feel at home 
in his presence. Even the little children shake hands with 
him as their friend, and catch his winning smile of recog- 
nition with delight. He was always on the best of teiiiis 
with children, as the little folks of Springfield, where lie 
lived so long, will testify. He loved them, and they loved 
him ; and here is the true philosophy of his magnetic 
influence in social life. He had no enemies among tlie 
young or old. Even his political opponents were not his 






AMIABLE CHARACTER. 21 

[| enemies : they respected him as a generous, noble, honest, 
, gifted man. 

It is only a few weeks since, that three little girls, the 

j daughters of a mechanic, neatly but poorly clad, passed 

' into the Presidential mansion with the crowd on reception- 

1 day. Their curiosity was on tip-toe ; and they were glancing 

I their sparkling eyes from object to object, not designing to 

ofier their little hands to the President, as their seniors 

did. Doubtless they thought that the Chief Magistrate of 

the nation would not like to have little girls intruding 

themselves ujion his presence on such an occasion : but 

1 tlfe President's sharp eye beheld them as they passed by 

I him ; and he called out, — 

" Little girls, are you going to pass me without shaking 
hands ? " 

Then he bent forward, -and warmly shook the hand of 
each child, all of whom seemed delighted with the inter- 
view, though not more so than everybody in the apartment ; 
for every beholder stood spell-bound by the touching scene, 
in which the beautiful simplicity and sincerity of Mr. Lin- 
coln's character appeared. 

President Lincoln's administration abounds with similar 
scenes that are incidental to his life in Washington, showing 
more of the " fine old country-gentleman " than his official 
acts. The Washington correspondent of the " Chicago 
Tribune" relates the following anecdote: — 

" I dropped in upon Mr. Lincoln on Monday last, and found him 
tusily engaged in counting greenbacks. 'This, sir,' said he, 'is 
something out of my usual hne; but a President of the United 
States has a multiplicity of duties not specified in the Constitution, 
or acts of Congress : this is one of tliem. This money belongs 
to a poor negro, who is a porter in one of the departments (the 



22 THE PIONEER BOY AS PRESIDENT. 

treasury), and who is at present very sick with the small-pox. Ho 
is now in the hospital, and could not draw his pay, because he 
could not sign his name. 

" ' I have been at considerable trouble to overcome the difficulty, 
and get it for him ; and have at length succeeded in cutting red 
tape, as you newspaper-men say. I am now dividing the money, 
and putting by a portion labelled in an envelope with my own 
hands, according to his wish ; ' and his excellency proceeded to 
indorse the package very carefully. No one who witnessed the 
transaction could fail to appreciate the goodness of heart wliidi 
would prompt a man, who is borne down by the weight of cans 
unparalleled in the world's history, to turn aside for a time from 
them to succor one of the humblest of his feUow-creatures in sick- 
ness and sorrow." ,» 

Pretty well for a President ! But Mr. Lincoln would 
always render a good ^rvice as readily to a black man as 
to a white one. The woi-th of the man is what attracts 
his attention, and not his complexion or his clothes. 
When two or three colored gentlemen availed themselves 
of the privilege to call upon him, at one of his Saturday 
receptions, a few months since, no visitor could discover 
that INIr. Lincoln considered them black. They were greeted 
with the same cordiality and freedom that he bestowed upon 
white men. It was the first time, probably, in the history 
of the White House, that colored men had participated in 
the receptions of the President ; and yet Mr. Lincoln 
treated the affair as of ordinary occurrence, much to his 
credit and renown. 

Another incident is related by George H. Stuart, 
Esq., of Philadelphia, to whom reference has been made. 
Although it was related for another object, it is equally 
valuable to illustrate the character of our beloved Chief 
Magistrate. Mr. Stuart said, — 



AMLVBLE CHARACTER. 23 

" I am not one of the delegates of the Commission. You will 
presently hear from two of them, who have been down into the 
depths of this great work, and will describe it to you with the force 
that their rich experience gives them : but I have visited many of 
the hospitals, and some of the camps, and distributed many of these 
religious books ; and I can testify, that, from the beginning until 
now, I have never met a man who refused my books, save only 
one, and he was from my own city of Philadelphia. I do not be- 
lieve in being conquered. I do not give up any thing, if it is prac- 
ticable, and can be effected. But here was a case for me. The mau 
told me that he was an infidel ; that he did not beUeve in my books ; 
that he did not need them. Said he, 'I am from Philadelphia; I 
live at such a number, Callowhill Street : if you will go there, you 
will find out my character, and that I am as good as you are.' — ' I 
trust, a great deal better,' said I. But the case did seem a diificult 
one. ' Stuart,' said a friend to whom I related the incident, ' you 
are beaten for once.' — 'No,' I replied : 'I am not done with that 
man yet.' I approached him a short time afterwards ; and he said 
to me, ' What is the book you wanted to give me 1 ' It was a 
selection from the Scriptures, called ' Cromwell's Bible.' ' Oh ! ' said 
be, ' I don't want your Bible ; I've no need of it : I'm a good enough 
mau without it.' And, with a motion of supreme indifference, he 
turned his head. Said I, 'My friend, I'm from Philadelphia too: 
I know where you live ; can find the exact house. On next Sun- 
day evening, if God spares my hfe, I expect to speak for the Chris- 
tian Commission in the Church of the Epiphany.' He looked at 
me with an inquisitive air. ' And what are you going to say 1 ' — 'I 
am going to tell the people that I have been distributing fracts, all 
day, through the hospitals and camps I had visited ; and that I 
found but one man who refused to take tliem, and he was from 
Philadelphia.' — ' Well, what more are you going to say 1 ' the man 
asked, with a steady gaze, apparently defying my attempts to move 
him. ' Well, I'll tell them that I commenced my tract-distribution 
this morning at the White House in Washington, and the first 
gentleman I offered one of these little books to was one Abraliam 
Lincoln ; that he rose from his chair, read tlie title, expressed great 
pleasure in receiving it, and promised to read it ; but that I came 
to one of his cooks, here in these quarters, and he was so exceed- 



24 THE PIONEER BOY AS PRESIDENT. 

ingly good, that he didn't need a copy of the Word of God, and 
wouldn't have one.' — ' Well,' said the man, completely conquered, 
' if the President can take one, I suppose I can,' as he reached out 
his hand and received it ! " 

Volumes might be filled with such incidents from the 
official life of President Lincoln, giving the right key to 
his charactei'. They show unusual personal worth, — al 
wealth of virtues that few public men have ever possessed. ' 
And here is found one of the secrets of his remarkable 
popularity. 

Certain wi'iters have so well described Mr. Lincoln in- 
some of these particulars^ that we quote from two or thi-ee 
of them, as follows : — 

One writer, who enjoyed excellent facilities for observa- 
tion, a few months since, says, — 

" Those who know the habits of President Lincoln are not sur- 
prised to liear of liis personal visit to some general, nor would any 
such be astonished to know tliat lie was in New York at any time. 
If he wanted to see any tiling or anybody, he woiild be as likely to 
go as to send. He has an orbit of his own ; and no one can tell 
where lie will be, or wliat he will do, from any thing done yesterday. 
If he wants a newspaper, he is quite as hkely to go out and get it 
as he is to send after it. If he wants to see the Secretary of State, 
he generally goes out, and makes a call. At night, from ten to 
twelve, he usually makes a tour all around, — now at Seward's, 
and then at Halleck's ; and, if Burnside was nearer, he would see 
him each niglit before he went to bed. Those who know his 
habits, and want to see him late at niglit, follow him round from 
place to place ; and the last search generally brings him up at Gen. 
Halleck's, as he can get the latest army intelligence there. Who- 
ever else is asleep or indolent, the President is wide awake and 
around. 

"Beneath all tlie playfulness of his mind burns a solemn earnest- 
ness of patriotism ; amid liis prudence, a great courage ; in all liis 
gentleness and compliance, a determined grasp of the reins, and a 



APrEAR.VXCE AST> DAILY LIFE. 25 

firmness not inferior to Gen. Jackson's, though without its passion 
and caprice. He is a wise, true, sagacious, earnest, and formida- 
ble leader." 

APPEARAXCE AND DAILY LIFE. 

" Perley," the Washington correspondent of the " Boston 
Journal," gives the following view of Mr. Lmcoln's daily 
life: — 

" ilr. Lincoln is an early riser ; and he thus is able to devote two 
or three hours each morning to his voluminous private correspond- 
ence, besides glancing at a city paper. At nine, he breakfasts ; 
then walks over to the war-office to read such war-telegrams as 
they give him (occasionally some are withheld), and to have a chat 
with Gen. Halleck on the militaiy situation, in which he takes a 
great interest. Eeturning to the White House, he goes through with 
his morning's mail, in company with a private secretary, who makes, 
a minute of the reply which he is to make ; and others the President 
retains, that he may answer them himself. Everj- letter receives 
attention ; and all which are entitled to a reply receive one, no ma1> 
ter how thej' are worded, or how inelegant the chirography may be. 

" Tuesday's and Fridays are cabinet-days ; but, on other days, visit- 
ors at the White House are requested to wait in the ante-chamber, 
and send in their cards. Sometimes, before the President has 
finished reading his mail, Louis will have a handful of pasteboard ; 
and, from the cards laid before him, Mr. Lincoln has visitors ush- 
ered in, giving precedence to acquaintances. Three or four hours 
do they pour in, in rapid succession, nine out of ten asking offices ; 
and patiently does the President listen to their application. Care 
and anxiety have furrowed his rather homely features : yet occa- 
sionally he is 'reminded of an anecdote;' and good-humored 
glances beam from liis clear gray eyes, while his ringing laugh 
shows that he is not ' used up ' yet. The simple and natural man- 
ner in which he deUvers his tlioughts, makes him appear, to those 
visiting him, like an earnest, affectionate friend. He makes httle 
parade of his legal science, and rarely indulges in speculative prop- 
ositions, but states his ideas in plain Anglo-Saxon, illuminated by 
many lively images and pleasing allusions, wliich seem to flow as 
if in obedience to a resistless impulse of his nature. 

2 



26 THE riONEEK BOY AS PRESIDENT. 

" About four o'clock, the President declines seeing any more com- 
pany, and often accompanies his wife in her carriage to take a drive. 
He is fond of horseback exercise ; and, when passing tlie smumers 
at home, used generally to go in the saddle. The President dines at 
six ; and it js rare that some personal friends do not grace the romid 
dining-table, where he throws off the cares of office, and reminds 
those who haA'e been in Kentucky of the old-school gentleman who 
used to dispense generous hospitaUty there. From the dinner-table, 
the party retire to the crimson drawing-room, Avliere coffee is served, 
and where the President passes the evening, miless some dignitary 
has a special interview. Such is the almost unvarying daily hfe of 
Abraham Lincoln, whose adnnnistration wUl rank next in impor- 
tance to that of Washington in our national annals." 

An English writer says of him, — 

" On one occasion, when the writer had the honor of meeting the 
President, the company was a small one, with most of whom he 
was personally acquainted. He was much at his ease. There was 
a look of depression about his face, which was habitual to him, even 
before liis child's death. It was strange to me to witness the per- 
fect terms of equality on which he appeared to be with everybody. 
Occasionally some one of his interlocutors called to him, 'Mr. 
President ; ' but the habit was to address him simply as ' Sir.' It was 
not, indeed, till we were introduced to him, that we were aware of 
his presence. He talked little, and seemed to prefer others talking 
to him, rather than to talk himself; but, when he spoke, his re- 
marks were always shrewd and sensible. You would never say 
that he was a gentleman : you would still less say that he was not 
one. There are some women, about whom no one ever thinks in 
connection with beauty one way or the other ; and there are men 
to whom the epithet of gentleman-like or ungentleman-like appears 
utterly incongruous, and of such Mr. Lincoln is one : stiU there is 
about him an utter absence of pretension, and an evident desire to 
be courteous to everybody, which is the essence, if not the outward 
form, of good-breeding. There is a softftess, too, about his smile, 
and a sparkle of dry humor about his eye, which redeem the ex- 
pression of his face, and remind us more of the late Dr. Arnold 
[the renowned English teacher], as a child's recollection recalls 
him, than of any face we can call to mind." 



NOBLE QUALITIES. 27 



NOBLE QUALITIES. 

Still another writer has drawn a portrait of Mr. Lincoln, 
so concisely, and yet so faithfully, that we cannot omit that 
portion of it which is most happily expressed. He says of 
him, — 

" His questions are answers ; and his answers, questions ; his 
guesses prophecies, and fulfilment ever beyond his promise ; honest, 
yet shrewd ; simple, yet reticent ; heavy, yet energetic ; never de- 
spairing, never sanguine ; careless in forms, conscientious in essen- 
tials ; never sacrificing a good servant once trusted, never deserting 
a good principle once adopted ; not afraid of new ideas, nor despising 
old ones ; improving opportunities to confess mistakes ; ready to 
learn ; getting at facts ; doing nothing when he knows not what to do ; 
hesitating at nothing, when he sees the right ; lacking the recog- 
nized qualifications of a party leader, and leading his party as no 
other man can ; sustaining his political enemies in Missouri in their 
defeat, sustaining liis political friends in Maryland in their victory ; 
conservative in his sympathies, and radical in his acts ; Socratic in 
his style, and Baconian in his method ; his religion consisting in 
truthfulness, temperance ; asking good people to pray for him, and 
publicly acknowledging in events the hand of Gpd, — yet he stands 
before you as the type of 'Brother Jonathan,' a not perfect man, 
and yet more precious than fine gold." 

This is a just tribute to Mr. Lincoln, so far as it goes ; 
and surely the man who answers to such a portrait is no 
common personage. Let us consider more particularly two 
or three points of character enumerated in the above. 

"Never despairing, never sanguine." What a 
blessed element of character for these revolutionary times, 
especially for our leader ! A despairing President would 
have gone to his grave, months ago ; the weight of his 
responsibilities would have crushed his life in a single year 
of such public service. On the other hand, a too-sanguine 



28 THE PIOXEER BOY AS PRESIDENT. 

character would have swamped our cause ere this by in- 
cautious measures and reckless expeditions. For such a 
period as this, hope, caution, and prudence are as necessary 
as sagacity, AArisdom, and patriotism. 

" Never deserting a good principle once adopt- 
ed." Who ever heard of Abraham Lincoln abandoning a 
good principle once embraced? When and where has he 
taken the " back track " since his inauguration ? His good 
principles have cai-ried him onward and upward. If he has 
been " slow," he has also been sure. He has always had 
his pickets out to guard against surprise. His enemies 
have called him '' vacillating ; " but where is the proof of 
it ? Can they specify a single act of his that justly exposes 
him to this censure? Not one. The record of his admin- 
istration shows that he has moved " onward, right onward," 
for liberty, justice, and humanity. If he has not adopted 
certain measures so soon or hastily as many desired at the 
time, let them disprove, if they can, that his policy has been 
the salvation of the nation. We fully believe that coming 
generations will accord the highest praise to his adminis- 
tration in this respect. Let the reader carefully peruse 
the following letter of Mr. Lincoln, recently penned in the 
honesty of his heart, and say if it does not confirm the views 
that we have expressed : — 

ExECUTI^^: MANSiOJf, 

WAS^IXGTO^^ April 4, 1864. 
To A. 6. Hodges, Esq., Frankfort, Ky. 

Mt dear Sir, — You ask me to put in writing tlie substance of 
what I verbally said the other day, in your presence, to Gov. Bram- 
lette and Senator Dixon. It was about as follows : — 

1 am naturally antislavery. K slavery is not wrong, nothing is 
wrong. I cannot remember when I did not see, think, and feel that 
it was wrong ; and yet I have never imderstood tliat the Presidency 



NOBLE QUALITIES. 29 

conferred upon me an unrestricted right to act officially upon this 
judgment and feeling. It was in the oath I took, that I would, to 
the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution 
of the United States. I could not take the office without taking the 
oath ; nor was it my view that I might take an oath to get power, 
and break the oath in using the power. I understood, too, that, in 
ordinary civil administration, this oath even forbade me to practi- 
cally indulge my primary abstract judgment on the moral question 
of slavery. I had publicly declared this many times and in many 
ways ; and I aver, that, to this day, I have done no official act in 
mere deference to my abstract judgment and feelina-on slavery. I 
did understand, however, that my oath to preserve the Constitution 
to the best of my ability iinposed upon me the duty of preserving, 
by every indispensable means, that Government, that nation, of 
which that Constitution was the organic law. 

Was it possible to lose the nation, and yet preserve the Constitu- 
tion? 

By general law, life and limb must be protected. Yet often a 
limb must be amputated to save a life ; but a hfe is never wisely 
given to save a limb. 

I feel that measures, otherwise imconstitutional, might become 
lawful by becoming indispensable to the preservation of the nation. 
Kight or wrong, I assumed this ground, and noAV avow it. I could 
not feel, that, to the best of my ability, I had even tried to preserve 
the Constitution, if, to preserve slavery or any minor matter, I should 
permit the wreck of the Government, country, and Constitution 
altogether. 

When, early in the war. Gen. Fremont attempted military eman- 
cipation, I forbade it, because I did not then think it an indispensable 
necessity. When, a little later. Gen. Cameron (then Secretary of 
War) suggested tlie arming of the blacks, I objected, because I did 
not yet think it an indispensable necessity. When, still later. Gen. 
Hunter attempted military emancipation, I again forbade it, because 
I did not yet think the indispensable necessity had come. 

When, in March, May, and July, 1862, I made earnest and suc- 
cessive appeals to the Boi-der States to favor compensated emanci- 
pation, I believed tlie indispensable necessity for military emanci- 
pation and arming of the blacks would come, unless averted by that 



30 THE PIONEER BOY AS PRESIDENT. 

measure. They declined the proposition ; and I was, in my best 
judgment, driven to the alternative of either surrendering the 
Union, and with it the Constitution, or of laying the strong hand 
upon the colored element. I chose the latter. In choosing it, I 
lioped for greater gain than loss ; but of this 1 was not entirely con- 
fident. _ 

More than a }'ear of trial now shows no loss by it m oiu" foreign 
relations, none in our home popular sentiment, none in our white 
military force, — no loss by it anyhow or anywhere. On the con- 
trary, it shows a gain of quite 130,000 soldiers, seamen, and laborers. 
These are palpable facts, about which, as facts, there can be no cav- 
illing. We have the men, and we could not have had them with- 
out the measure. Now, let any Union man, who complains of the 
measure, test himself by writing down in one line that he is for 
subduing the RebelUon by force of arms ; and the next, that he is 
for taking these 130,000 men from the Union side, and placing them 
where they would be but for the measure he condemns. If he can- 
not face his cause so stated, it is because he cannot face the truth. 

I add a word which was not in the verbal conversation. In tell- 
ing this tale, I attempt no comphment to my own sagacity. I 
claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events 
have controlled me. Now, at the end of three years' struggle, the 
nation's condition is not what either party or any man devised or 
expected : God alone can claim it. Whither it is tending seems 
plain. If God now wills the removal of a great wrong, and wills 
also that we of the North as well as you of the South shall pay fair. 
ly for our complicity in that wrong, impartial history will find there- 
in new cause to attest and revere the justice and goodness of God. 
Yours truly, A. Lincoln. 

This letter is valuable, as proof that Mr. Lincoln never 
abandons a good principle once adopted ; while as a 
literary production, rei)lete with sound sense, lofty senti- 
ments, profound logic, true political philosophy, and poetic 
beauty, it was never surpassed. It will bear comparison 
with the most felicitous epistolary efforts of the greatest 
statesmen of this or other lands. 



NOBLE QU.U.ITIES. 31 

Mrs. Stowe, the celebrated authoress, speaking of the one- 
ness of his purpose, says, — 

" Surrounded by all sorts of conflicting claims, by traitors, by half- 
hearted, timid men, by Border-State men and Free-State men, by 
radical abolitionists and conservatives, he has hsteued to all, 
weighed the words of aU ; waited, observed ; yielded now here, and 
now there ; but in the main kept one inflexible, honest purpose, and 
drawn the national ship through." 

" Honest, tet shrewd ; careless in forms, Consci- 
entious IN ESSENTIALS." This is another element of Mr. 
Lincoln's character named in the portraiture, to which we 
will return. The worth of honestt, conscientiousness, 
in a leader now, when treachery and treason have done their 
worst, no man can estimate. Suppose we had another 
James Buchanan in the presidential chair now, — a man 
who^has been long known for the opposite of political hon- 
esty and conscientiousness : what could loyalty do ? Fare- 
well to our Republican Government, farewell to our liber- 
ties and national glory, if such a man were our President ! 

In this hour of peril, we need an honesty at the helm 
that will inspire confidence in every loyal heart. The bare 
suspicion of political chicanery in our leader ^vould almost 
paralyze the arm that is lifted to crush the Rebellion. The 
suspicion that Gen. M'Clellan was not faithful to our cause 
sacrificed the confidence of the nation, and doomed him to 
inglorious retirement. And thus it ought to be. Treach- 
ery well-nigh destroyed the Government, and honestt 
alone can save it. Thanks, thanks, that a good Providence 
has given us a ruler whose honesty is " clear as the sun, 
fair as the moon," and, to our malignant foes, " terrible as 
an army with banners " ! 

Reader, how much do you suppose our enemies would 



32 THE PIONEER COY AS PRESIDENT. 

give for the proof of deceit and political fraud in Abraliam 
Lincoln ? It would be worth the price of our national de- 
struction to them, since they might use it to destroy us. 
Ah ! never before did this country have such occasion to 
glorify HONESTY as now. Never before had the people so 
great reason to bless the Lord for an honest man, " the no- 
blest work of God.'" 

" Doing nothing when he knows not what to 
DO." How many men, in this dilemma, rush headlong, hit 
or miss ! Being ambitious, and devoid of prudence and 
foresight, they conquer perplexity by sacrificing success. 
But not so with a man of as much sagacity and caution 
as Mr. Lincoln possesses. He can see no advantage in 
bUnd action. If something be lost by waiting for devel- 
opments, less is gained by a reckless leap in the dark. 
Better do nothing than to ax;t without intelligence and fni-e- 
sight, especially in a crisis like the j^resent. 

But we will- not pursue this portrait, except to notice 
one more point, contained in the sentence, " Asking good 
people to pray for Mm, and puhlicly acknowledging the hand 
of God in events." 

Recall what we have already said of his recognition of 
divine agency in human affairs. Beginning with his 
speech on leaving Springfield, and ending with his last 
proclamation of thanksgiving to God for recent victories, 
observe that here is a fundamental principle of his religious 
character. He believes in Providence ; " and, believing, he 
maintains." Frequently he alluded, in his speeches on 
his presidential tour, to the utter impossibility of foreseeing 
what the morrow might bi-ing forth to the country ; and, at 
Buffalo, he used the following words of wisdom : " When 
it is considered that these difficulties are without precedent, 



NOBLE qualities; 33 

and never have been acted upon by any individual situated 
as I am, it is most proper that 1 should wait, and see the 
developments, and get all the light possible." And in his 
Inaugural Address, after speaking of what he should do, 
he very wisely threw in this paragraph : — 

" The course here indicated will be followed, unless current events 
and experience shall show a modification or change to be proper; and, in 
every case and exigency, my best discretion will be exercised 
according to the circumstances actually existing." 

Now, the full import of these passages, interpreted by 
his subsequent acts, is an honest recognition of Providence, 
and a determination to follow its teachings. To the Synod 
of the Baltimore Old-School Presbyterians, who paid their 
respects to him in a body, he replied : — 

" I can only say in this case, as in so many others, that I am 
profoundly grateful for the respect, given in every variety of form 
which it can be given, from the religious bodies of the country. 
I saw, upon taking my position here, I was going to have an 
administration, if an administration at all, of extraordinary difH- 
culty. 

" It was, without exception, a time of the greatest diiScuIty this 
country ever saw. I was early brought to a lively reflection, that 
nothing in my power whatever, or others, to rely upon, would suc- 
ceed, without direct assistance of the Almighty. I have often 
wished that I was a more devout man than I am : nevertheless, 
amid the greatest diificulties of my administration, when I could 
not see any other resort, I would place my whole reliance in God, 
knowing all would go well, and that he would decide for the right. 

" I thank you, gentlemen, in the name of the religious bodies 
which you represent, and in the name of our common Father, for 
this expression of respect. I cannot say more." 

Similar thoughts he had expressed before to the Synod 
of the New-School Presbyterians, and since then to the 

2* 



34 THE PIONEER BOY AS PRESIDENT. 

National Conference of Methodists, and the General Asso- 
ciation of Baptists ; all of which we love to mention, as 
showing his firm reliance upoii God for success. 

Then, too, his frequent proclamations for days of fasting 
and prayer, as well as days of thanksgiving, indicate the 
strength of his convictions on this point. These requests 
have been so often repeated, that cavillers, whom posterity 
will rebuke for their godless ridicule, have sueeringly re- 
ferred, in consequence, to the '' pious air of Washington." 

If the reader will turn to his recent memorable letter to 
A. G. Hodges, Esq., already quoted, he will find this fiank 
avowal: "I claiji not to have controlled events, 

BUT confess plainly THAT EVENTS HAVE CONTROLLED 

ME." This is but another laconic and happy way of 
expressing his purpose to follow the leadings of Divine 
Providence. lie continues : " Now, at the end of three 
years' struggle, the nation's condition is not what either 
party or any man devised or expected: God alone can 
claim it. "Whither it is tending seems plain. If God now 
wills the removal of a great wrong, and wills also that we 
of the North, as well as you of the South, shall pay fairly 
for our complicity in that lorong, impartial history ivill find 
therein new cause to attest and. revere the justice and good- 
ness of God." 

Let sceptics and ci'itics pour contempt upon this para- 
graph, if they will : we know of nothing in the annals of 
statesmanship that is more sublime. For the head of a 
great nation thus to declare fearlessly that tlie hand of God 
is guidingrand controlling events, and that he has recog- 
nized the truth, and loill continue to recognize it, in the 
face of the world, is the climax of moral sublimity. We 
haye hope of a nation having such a ruler. It presents 



NOELE QUALITIES. 35 

such a striking contrast with the too -frequent infidelity 
and godless disregard of Jehovah that pervades political 
circles, as to fill %)nr hearts mth admiration. Well may 
the American people rejoice in this new era of Chris- 
tian rule. That we have a President who dares write 
these sincere sentiments of his heart, and publish them to 
the nation, is cause for gratitude. A student of Provi- 
dence IN THE White House ! Let the Church of the 
living God hold up his hands with their supplications, as 
Aaron and Hur sustained the hand of Moses until Israel 
conquered ! 

A gentleman, whose boyhood and early manhood were 
spent in intimate association with Abraham Lincoln, and 
who has maintained that acquaintance to the present time, 
although they politically differ, writes to the author as fol- 
lows : " The fact is, you never saw such a man as Abraham 
Lincoln. You may think that I exaggerate ; but I do not : 
every word that I have written is true. You cannot ex- 
aggerate in speaking of his character. I will say here, 
that we differ wholly in political matters. He has always 
been a Henry Clay Whig, and I have always been a 
Jackson Democrat. Yet, when he was nominated for the 
Presidency, I felt that it was my duty to vote for hiin ; and 
I did:' 

We trust that there will be many Democrats of like con- 
scientiousness and consistency at the next Presidential 
election. 

Even that now Copperhead journal, the " New- York 
World," spoke as follovys since Mr. Lincoln became Presi- 
dent : — 

"Without any advantages of wealth, birth, education, man- 
ners, personal appearance, personal connections, or experience in 



36 THE riONEER BOY AS PRESIDENT. 

public life, President Lincoln has taught the country to confide 
in him with almost implicit trust. This is the most extraordinary 
moral phenomenon of which we have any recollection. How are 
we to account for it? 

" He is a living exemplification of the important truth, that, of 
all the elements of influence, none is • so powerful as character. 
Knowledge, to be sure, is power, according to the adage ; so 
wealth is power, social position is power, great capacity for politi- 
cal intrigue is power, eloquence and brilliant intellectual gifts are 
power: but it is much more emphatically true that character is 
power. Mr. Lincoln has become so strong in the esteem of his 
countrymen, because he has given evidence of a strong character, 
held in subordination to high moral principle, or rather because 
tiis uncommon strength of character consists in the robustness of 
tiis moral nature." 

Much has been said about Mr. Lincoln's correct habits. 
" He has no vices," remarked a distinguished statesman; and 
the remark is true. His most intimate friend never wit- 
nessed the least approximation to a vice in Mr. Lincoln. He 
never smokes, never uses intoxicating drinks, never utters 
a profane word, or engages in games of chance. Such an 
example is unusual in the political world. It is not un- 
frequently the case, that good men sacrifice their principles 
wholly when they enter the political arena. It requires 
moral courage and deep religious conviction to withstand 
the temptations of this public sphere ; and Mr. Lincoln is 
one of the few statesmen who have proved themselves 
equal to the position. His habits are as simple and pure 
to-day as they were in his early manhood. 

An English correspondent writes that he was spending 
the evening with a small company of gentlemen in Wash- 
ington, among whom was Mr. Lincoln. In the course of 
the evening, cigars were passed to all but the President; 
the host remarking with a smile, " Mr. Lincoln has no 



NOBLE QUALITIES. 37 

vices." — " That is a doubtful compliment," answered the 
President. " I recollect once being outside a stage in 
Illinois, and a man sitting by me offered me a cigar. I 
told him I had no vices. He said nothing, smoked for 
some time, and then grunted out, ' It's my experience, that 
folks who have no vices have plaguy few virtues.' " The 
company could but admire Mr. Lincoln's way of adhering 
to his principles, and, at the same time, pleasing his asso- 
ciates, instead of giving offence. 

Among the numerous delegations who have waited upon 
tbe President to utter complaints, make suggestions, or 
proffer friendly salutations, was a large delegation of the 
Sons of Temperance. They presented an address on the 
subject of intemperance in the army ; to which Mr. Lincoln 
replied, in substance : — 

" When he was a young man, long ago, before the Sons of Tem- 
perance, as an organization, had an existence, he, in a humble way, 
made temperance speeches ; and .he thought he might say, that, 
to this day, he had never, by his example, belied what he then 
said. As to the suggestions for the purpose of the advancement 
of the cause of temperance in the army, he could not respond to 
them. To prevent intemperance in the army is the aim of a 
great part of the rules and articles of war. It is part of the law 
of the land, and. was so, he presumed, long ago, to dismiss officers 
for drunkenness. He Avas not sure, that, consistently with the 
public service, more could be done than has been done. All, 
therefore, he could promise, was to have a copy of the address 
submitted to the principal departments, and have it considered 
wliether it contains any suggestions which will improve the cause 
of temperance and repress drunkenness in the army any better 
than is already done. He thought the reasonable men of the 
world have long since agreed that drunkenness is one of the great- 
est, if not the very greatest, of all evils among mankind. That 
is not a matter of dispute. All men agree that intemperance is 
a great cvu'se, but differ about the cure. The suggestion that it 



38 THE PIONEER BOY AS PRESIDENT. 

existed to a great extent in tlie army was true ; but, whether that 
was the cause of defeats, he knew not : but he did know that there 
was a great deal of it on the other side ; therefore they had no 
riglit to beat us on that ground." 

It appears that he was once a temperance lecturer, in a 
humble way ; and he is not ashamed to own it now that he 
is President. Indeed, he never did any thing that he is 
ashamed of, so far as we can learn. He has no cause for 
shame, when his acts have always-been on the side of right. 
One of the most honorable and able lawyers of Illinois, for 
seventeen years the law-partner of Mr. Lincoln, closes a 
letter to the author with the following sentence: ^^ Abraham 
Lincoln never did a mean thing in his life." Surely a 
man of whom this can be truthfully said need not be 
ashamed to own his acts. 

When the Petition of the Loyal "Women of Massachu- 
setts, on the subject of intemperance in the army, was 
presented to the President by a distinguished statesman, 
he took the instrument, carefully read it, and then, as care- 
fully folding it in his hand, exclaimed, " Dear, good souls ! 
if they only knew how much I had tried to remedy this 
great evil, they would be rejoiced." 

Reader, consider, for a moment, how much the nation 
owes to a temperate President. Suppose he were the "op- 
posite in his habits, addicted to the habitual use of strong 
drink, and liable, with all such persons, to become intem- 
perate, especially when the great pressure and excitement of 
public business increases the craving for some stimulus : how 
much greater would be our perils ! It is another cause for 
thankfulness that we have a total-abstinence man in this 
high office. We know that his brain will never reel under 
the deadly influence of strong drink ; that he will not 



INTELLECTUAL^ GREATNESS. 39 

become disqualified for his office on this account. Battles 
may be lost, and disaster befall our arms in the field, in 
consequence of the drunkenness of commanding officers ; 
but the Ship of State will never founder or sink because 
the pilot is intoxicated. A clear head and a pure heart, 
iron-clad against the seductions of office or honor, presides 
at the helm. The very highest authority recognizes the 
fact, that such a man is born to rule ; or, at least, that the 
absence of self-government exposes the ruler and his cause 
to ruin. " He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like 
a city that is hrohen down and without walls." 



INTELLECTUAL GREATNESS. 

The enemies of Mr. Lincoln have frequently ridiculed 
his mental abilities. The masterly power with which he 
has handled the most difficult questions of his Administra- 
tion is a sufficient refutation of all such political vitu- 
peration. Also, before he was elevated to this post of 
distinction, it was demonstrated that he was mentally able 
to cope with his most formidable adversaries. His memo- 
rable contest with Judge Douglas, in Illinois, proved that 
he was superior to his opponent. If Douglas was intel- 
lectually a great man, as no person will doubt, then Abra- 
ham Lincoln is greater ; for, by general consent, he worsted 
the judge in .every debate, and won the popular vote of the 
State. Even many of the friends of the "Little Giant" 
confessed that Mr. Lincoln left him in a dilapidated condi- 
tion. No man can read these debates, with an unprejudiced 
mind, without according to the conceded victor superiority 
of intellect. 



40 THE PIONEER BOY AS PRESIDENT. 

A distinguished scholar, Avho listened to one of his 
speeches in that remarkable campaign, says, — 

" He then proceeded to defend the Republican party. Here he 
charged Mr. Douglas with doing nothing for freedom ; with disre- 
garding the rights and interests of the colored man ; and, for about 
forty minutes, he spoke with a power that we have seldom heard 
equalled. There was a grandeur in his thoughts, a comprehensive- 
ness in his arguments, and a binding force in his conclusions, which 
were perfectly irresistible. The vast throng were silent as deatli : 
every eye was fixed upon the speaker, and all gave him serious 
attention. He was the tall man eloquent : his countenance glowed 
with animation, and his eye glistened with an intelligence that 
made it lustrous. He was no longer awkward and imgainly, but 
graceful, bold, commanding." 

It was in one of these powerful debates with Mr. Douglas 
that he paid the following eloquent tribute to the Declara- 
tion of Independence. The passage is alike creditable to 
his mental powers, his sympathy for the colored race, his 
self-abnegation, his advocacy of principles above men, and 
his earnest appeal to Republicans to stand up for the right. 
On the whole, it is one of the most remarkable passages of 
forensic eloquence on record. 

" These communities (the thirteen Colonies), by their representa- 
tives in old Independence Hall, said to the world of men, ' We hold 
these truths to be self-evident, that all men are born equal ; that 
they are endowed by their Creator with inahenable rights ; that 
among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.' This 
was their majestic interpretation of the economy of the universe. 
This was their lofty and wise and noble understancyng of the jus- 
tice of the Creator to his creatiu-es ; yes, gentlemen, to all his 
creatures, to the whole great tamily of man. In their enhghtened 
belief, nothing stamped with the divine image and likeness was 
sent into the world to be trodden on, and degraded and imbruted 
by its fellows. They grasped not only the race of men then living, 
but they reached forward, and seized upon the furthest posterity. 



INTELLECIUAL GREATNESS. 41 

They created a beacon to guide their children and their children's 
children, and tlie countless myriads who sliould inhabit the earth 
in other ages. Wise statesmen as they were, they knew the ten- 
dency of prosperity to breed tyrants ; and so they established these 
great self-evident truths, that when, in the distant future, some 
man, some fiiction, some interest, should set up the doctrine, that 
none but rich men, or none but white men, or none but Anglo- 
Saxon white men, were entitled to Ufe, liberty, and the pursuit of 
happiness, tlieir posterity might look up again to the Declaration 
of Independence, and take courage to renew the battle which their 
fathers began, so that truth and justice and mercy, and all the 
humane and Christian virtues, might not be extinguished from 
the land ; so that no man would hereafter dare to limit and circum- 
scribe the great principles on which the temple of Liberty was 
being built. 

" Now, my countrymen, if you have been taught doctrines con- 
flicting with the great landmarks of the Declaration of Independ- 
ence ; if you have listened to suggestions which would take away 
from its grandeur, and mutilate the fair symmetry of its propor- 
tions ; if you have been inclined to beUeve that all men are not 
created equal in those inalienable rights enumerated by our chart 
of liberty, — let me entreat you to come back, return to the foun- 
tain whose waters spring close by the blood of the Revolution. 
Think nothing of me, take no thought for the political fate of any 
man whomsoever, but come back to the truths that are in the 
Declaration of Independence. 

" You may do any thing with me you choose, if you will but 
heed these sacred principles. You may not only defeat me for the 
Senate, but you may take me and put me to death. While pre- 
tending no indifference to earthly honors, I do claim to be actuated 
in this contest by something higher than an anxiety for office. I 
charge you to drop every paltry and insignificant thought for any 
man's success. It is nothing; I am nothing; Judge Douglas is 
nothing. But do not destroy that immortal emblem of humanity, — the 
Declaration of American Independence." 

We might quote the words of many distinguished schol- 
ars and statesmen concerninsr Mr. Lincoln's intellectual 



42 THE PIONEER BOY AS PRESIDENT. 

abilities ; but we have room only for a brief paragraph from 
a speech of Senator Trumbull : — 

"He studied, and for a time practised, the business of a land- 
surveyor; then he entered into the study of the law, and rapidl\- 
rose to the liigli distinction of the ablest lawyer in the North-west. Jlo 
is a giant; and, without the prefix 'Little ' to it, a giaiit in intelUct 
as well as in stature." 

Nor is this high opinion of him confined to our own 
country. From a letter of the Paris correspondent of the 
*' New- York Times," we learn what the leading men of 
France, who have not caught the mania of hostility to 
our form of Government, think of our President. He 
writes, — 

" Tlie popularity of Mr. Lincoln lias heen as much advanced 
abroad by his late acts as in the United States. His maintenance 
of the act of emancipation in liis Annual Message has given im- 
mense satisfaction to all those not prejudiced by special reasons for 
the Rebellion ; and his sagacity, straightforwardness, and honesty, 
in the midst of such confusion and excitement, called from M. 
Laboulaye the other day, at the College de France, before an 
immense audience of the ilite of the intellectual world, the ex- 
-clamation, that Mr. Lincoln was 'a greater man than Caesar ! ' So, 
too, I heard a leading French pohtician say lately, ' You Americans 
don't appreciate Mr. Lincoln at his proper value. No monarch in 
Europe could carry on such a colossal war in front, while harassed 
by so many factions and fault-finders behind. No : you don't give 
him his due.' From a European point of view, the merit of Mr. 
Lincoln is, in effect, immense ; but, in a republic, it is the people, 
and not the President, who carry on the war. The personal com- 
pliment paid to Mr. Lincoln in the above remark, is, however, none 
the less valuable ; and, on every side, I hear people begin to say, 
that Mr. Lincoln will merit more than a biography : he will merit a 
history." 

" A GREATER MAN THAN C^SAK ! " This may not be 



ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 43 

teue ; but it is the opinion of a distinguished Frenchman in 
his own countzy. 

Similar sentiments have been expressed in England 
again and again by public men, though we have room but 
for a single quotation. Goldwin Smith, Esq., an English- 
man of decided ability, has, in a recent " Letter to a 
Whig Member of the Southern Independence Association," 
made so fair and noble a plea for our loyal cause, that 
he deserves the gratitude of every American patriot. Of 
the President he says, — 

" He was chosen out of the mass by the ordinary method of 
election, not called forth to meet a terrible emergency ; yet he has 
met the most terrible of all emergencies with sense and self-posses- 
sion, as well, probably, as it would have been met by any European 
sovereign or statesman whom you could name. 



ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 

Again : Mr. Lincoln has been represented as a great 
story-teller ; and the press has teemed with anecdotes 
ascribed to him, until many conclude that he never speaks 
without telling a story. A very erroneous idea has thus 
been impressed upon the public mind. That Mr. Lincoln 
possesses a remarkable facility for using anecdotes to illus- 
trate his subject, and that he has few equals in the pleasant 
,repartee, we admit ; but he has not the habit of employing 
these on all occasions, important and unimportant, as 
many letter - writera assert. We have the authority of 
his most intimate friends, who have been more with him, 
and seen more of him, than any other persons, for making 
this denial. Many of the anecdotes, too, which are as- 
cribed to him by the press, he never uttered : they were 



44 THE PIONEER BOY AS TRESLDENT. 

manufactured by sensational writers. We have the veryji 
highest authority for asserting, that of one column and ai 
half of anecdotes, published last winter in the " New-Yorki 
Evening Post," and accredited to Mr. Lincoln, only two of\, 
them are his. And the same is true of a pamphlet re-j 
cently issued in New York, entitled " Old Abe's Jokes."': 
Only a fi-actional part of them have the least foundation inj; 
truth. I 

Those coarse, vulgar, and almost profone anecdotes as-ij 
cribed to him by the press are fabrications. His stories iij 
and repartees are always pointed, pure, and houoi-able. I 
He never descends to undignified and low illustrations to|! 
point an argument or afford entertainment. j 

Among the good stories ascribed to him, and correctly j 
so, are the following, which we think the reader will say'^j 
are no disparagement to the President's head or heart: — |^ 

" A gentleman called upon the President, and solicited a pass for i 
Richmond. ' Well,' said the President, ' I would be very happy to ' 
oblige, if my passes were respected ; but the fact is, sir, I have, !j 
within the past two years, ^iven passes to two hundred and fifty 1 1 
thousand men to go to Richmond, and not one has got there 
yet.' 

" When the Sherman Expedition, which captured Port Royal, 
was fitting, there was great curiosity to learn where it had gone. 
A person, visiting the Chief Magistrate at the White House, im- 
portuned him to disclose the destination to him. ' Will you keep 
it entirely secret ? ' asked the President. ' Oh, yes ! upon my 
honor.' — ' Well,' said the President, ' I'll tell you.' Assuming an i 
air of great mystery, and drawing the man close to him, he kept 1 
him a moment awaiting the revelation with an open mouth and ' 
great anxiety. ' Well,' said he in a loud whisper which was heard 
all over the room, ' the expedition has gone to — sea ! ' " 

As a very pleasant way of rebuking that annoyance to 
which Mr. Lincoln has been subjected, we think the above 



ILLUSTRATIVE AXECDOTES. 45 

examples are worthy of imitation ; and, for exposing the 
unreasonableness of many complaints to which he has been 
obliged to listen, the following are excellent : — 

" On a late occasion, when the White House was open to the 
puhhc, a farmer from one of the border counties of Virginia told 
tlie President, that the Union soldiers, in passing his farm, had 
helped themselves, not only to hay, but to his horse ; and he hoped 
the President would urge the proper officer to consider his claim 
immediately. 

" ' Why, my dear sir,' replied Mr. Lincoln blandly, ' I couldn't 
think of such a thing. If I consider individual cases, I should find 
work enough for twenty Presidents.' 

" The man urged his needs persistently. Mr. Lincoln decUned 
good-naturedly. ^ 

" ' But,' said the persevering sufferer, ' couldn't you just give me 
a line to Col. about it ? just one line ? ' 

" ' Ha, ha ! ' responded Mr. Lincoln, crossing his legs the other 
way, ' that reminds me of Jack Chase, of Illinois. He was lum- 
berman on the Illinois ; and he was steady and sober, and the best 
raftsman on the river. It was quite a trick, twenty-five years ago, 
to take the logs over the rapids ; but he was skilful with a raft, and 
always kept her straight in the channel. Finally a steamer was 
put on, and Jack (he's dead now, poor fellow !) was made captain 
of her. He always used to take the wheel, going through the 
rapids. One day, when the boat was plunging and wallowing 
along the boiling current, and his utmost vigilance was being exer- 
cised to keep her in the narrow channel, a boy pulled his coat, 
exclaiming, ' Say, captain, I wish you would just stop the boat a 
mmute : I've lost my apple overboard ! ' 

" Some gentlemen were present at the White House, from the 
West, excited and troubled about the commissions or omissions of 
the Administration. The President heard them patiently, and then 
replied : ' Gentlemen, suppose all the property you were worth was 
in gold, and you had put it in the hands of Blondin to carry across 
the Niagara River on a rope : would you shake the cable, or keep 
shouting out to him, " Blondin ! stand up a little straighter ; Blondin ! 
stoop a little more, go a little faster, lean a little more to the north, 



46 THE PIONEER BOY AS PRESIDENT. 

lean a little more to the south " ? No : you would hold your breath, 
as well as your tongue, and keep your hands off imtil he was safe 
over. The Government are carrying an immense weight. Untold 
treasures are in their hands. They are doing the very best they 
can. Don't badger them. Keep silence, and we'll get you safe 
across.' Tliis simple illustration answered the complaints of half 
an hour, and not only silenced but charmed the audience." 

HIS ADMINISTRATION. 

The success of Mr. Lincoln's Administration can be 
measured only by considering the diificulties which he has 
overcome. No ruler ever entered upon his office with 
more to dishearten and embarrass. The outgoing Adminis- 
tration had proved treacherous and abominably corrupt. 
Treason was perpetrated in the cabinet, with the consent, 
if not with the complicity, of the imbecile President. 
Secretary Cobb had robbed the public treasury of six 
millions of dollars, and well-nigh plunged the nation into 
bankruptcy ; Secretary Floyd had stolen one hundred and 
fifteen thousand stands of arms from our arsenals, and sent 
them South ; Secretary Toucey, though a New-England 
man, (shame on his treasonable deeds !) had sent all our 
navy, except two vessels, into distant ports, whence they 
could not readily be recalled ; and President Buchanan 
had winked at this barefaced treason in his cabinet, either 
from shameful cowardice, or wicked sympathy with the 
conspirators in their hellish plot. 

The departments of State at Washington were filled 
with traitors. Every day they were resigning their posts, 
and going South to join the rebels. It Avas almost impos- 
sible to tell who were loyal, and who were not. Few 
clerks, comparatively, were free from suspicion. 



HIS ADMmiSTKATION. 47 

Thus President Lincoln found an empty treasury, enapty 
arsenals, a scattered navy, and treasonable servants, on 
assuming the duties of his office. He could command 
scarcely men and means sufficient for the defence of the 
capital. The credit of the Government, also, had been 
impaired by the infamous conduct of Buchanan's cabinet ; 
and how to raise money to carry on the war was a per- 
plexing question to be answered. 

Nor was the most dangerous foe in his front. In his 
rear, at the North, were thousands of misguided partisans, 
whose sympathies were with the rebels, and whose effijrts 
to embarrass the Administration ought to have doomed 
them to a felon's cell. They were but a division or wing 
of the great Southern army of traitors, seeking to destroy 
the nation by a flank movement, in which the infamy of 
their political spite was manifest. 

The rebels, too, had seized many of our forts and arse- 
nals, together with custom-houses and other public build- 
ings, and unfurled the flag of Secession on almost every 
foot of slave territory. The Border States were mainly 
in their possession, and they really expected to carry the 
whole of them out of the Union. To this end, fraud, 
violence, and bloodshed were employed without let or 
hinderance. 

Then England and France were conniving with the 
South, and complicating our national aflfairs by their un- 
generous and inconsistent acts. At a time when they 
ought to have expressed their unfeigned friendship for our 
endangered Government, they basely lent their influence 
to the South, in order to hasten the overthrow of this I'ival 
nation. 

Thus Mr. Lincoln was reduced to the necessity of 



48 THE PIONEER BOY AS PRESIDENT. 

creating an array and navy, a national credit and treasury, 
in order to inspire confidence at home and abroad, that the 
flag of the Union might be carried back in triumph over 
the whole area of Rebellion. 

Never did such a task devolve upon a ruler before ; and 
how well he has succeeded, let the hopeful position of our 
cause at the present time, the confidence of civilian and 
Boldier, the success of our arms in recovering most of the 
forts and arsenals held by the insurgents, with three- 
fourths of the territory which they controlled at the com- 
mencement of the war, — let these achievements answer. 
Let the improved condition of our foreign relations, in 
which Southei:n duplicity has been exposed by Northern 
vigilance and uprightness, bear testimony to Mr. Lincoln's 
sagacity. And, above all, let the progress of freeiiom, and 
the wonderful change of public opinion on the question of 
slavery, keeping pace with Mr. Lincoln's Administration, 
as well as the advancement of the national credit, and the 
utter discomfiture of rebel sympathizers at the North, — 
let these results settle the question of his success. 

We repeat, history does not furnish another example of 
a nation conducting such a mighty struggle with an army 
and navy extemporized as by the power of an enchanter, 
and all the while wonderfully developing its moral and 
physical resources, and rising higher and higher in national 
greatness as the struggle grows in magnitude and des- 
peration ; and for this the coiantry is more indebted to 
Abraham Lincoln, whose hope and courage, sagacity and 
prudence, honesty and mental abihty, have conducted the 
campaign, than to any other man. 

A writer in the " North- American Review " says, " Hither- 
to the wisdom of the President's measures has been justified 



HIS ADMIXISTEATIOX. 49 

by the fact, that they have always resulted in more firmly 
uniting public opinion." This is the highest proof of his 
statesmanship. With two violent factions on almost every 
question pressing their respective claims, he has pursued 
an even-handed course, that has disarmed their animosity, 
and resulted in greater harmony. How often has it been 
said of this and that measure of the President, " It will 
divide the North, and distract the country " ! This was 
said of the draft, the release of Mason and Slidell, the sus- 
pension of the writ of habeas corpus, the proclamation of 
emancipation, and the employment of soldiers in the array. 
But when and where have these measures divided the loyal 
people ? They were never so well united as now. In aU 
these measures they have acquiesced ; and there is, at pre- 
sent, greater unanimity with them than there could have 
been without them. The complaints against coercion long 
since died away, and emancipation is very generally ac- 
cepted as the legitimate result of the war. At first, there 
■was a great outcry against receiving slaves into our lines ; 
but now they are armed and equipped according to law, 
and eulogized for their courage in battle. The same fault- 
finders, who thought that the nation would tumble to pieces 
if colored men were employed as soldiers, are now among 
the loudest in their praise of negro bravery. 

It is quite amusing to review the charges that have been 
brought against Mr. Lincoln. One side has accused him 
of being too conservative ; the other, of being too radical. 
The conservatives charged him with waging war for the 
destruction of slavery : the radicals denounced him for 
doing little or nothing for liberty. One party have called 
him a tyrant and usurper : another has complained of his 
leniency toward traitors and their sympathizers. He has 

3 



50 THE PIONEER BOY AS PRESIDENT. 

gone too flist for some : he lias been altogether too slow 
for others. Many have cursed his warlike propensities; 
not a few have deplored his disposition to adopt pacific 
measures. With some, his despotic rnle endangered our 
liberties ; with others, they were imperilled for the want 
of it. Thus it has been, pro and con. ; and still the Presi- 
dent has pursued the even tenor of his way, consulting his 
cabinet, hearing complaints, judging for himself, studying 
Providence, and looking to God for success ; and now all 
these matters of violent discussion are well-nigh obsolete 
in the progress of events, and the people are rallying 
around their noble standard-bearer with more harmony 
than the most sanguine of them ever anticipated. We do 
not assert that all the glory of this remarkable change and 
union should be ascribed to Mr. Lincoln ; for, with him, 
we recognize a higher agency in this wonderful revolution. 
In regard to Mr. Lincoln's success and popularity, even 
the New- York correspondent of the " London Times " wrote, 
months ago, before the oposition was stimulated by the 
thought of the next Presidential election : — 

" There can be no doubt tliat the President is the most popular 
man in the United States. "Without education or marked abihty, 
without the personal advantages of a fine presence or courteous 
manners, and placed unexpectedly in a position of unparalleled dif- 
ficulty and danger, he has so conducted liiniself, amid the storm of 
passion that rages around liim, as to have won the good opinion 
of everybody. 

" There is not a journal in the country that speaks of him, except 
with high respect ; there is not a soldier in the field who does not 
love and honor him ; and there is not a man in private life, wliat- 
ever may be his political opinions, or his views upon the origin, 
conduct, or progress of the war, who does not cheerfully admit 
that Mr. Lincoln has shown himself equal to his work, and rescued 
the presidential office from the contempt into which it was falUng. 



HIS ADMrMSTEATIOX. 51 

" The explanation is to be found in his manly common sense anil 
kis unquestionable honesty. Incorrupt amid the corruption, perse- 
vering amid the vacillation, and single-minded amid the false 
pertence and tortuous double-dealing, of three-fourths of the public 
men with whom he has been brought into contact, he has concen- 
trated upon himself, without seeking it, an amount of confidence 
that "Washington himself never enjoyed, and of popularity that was 
only heaped upon that patriot's memory after death had sanctified 
his claim to veneration." 

The heartless insincerity of the men who have raised 
the cry of " Peace, peace ! " against Mr. Lincoln's Adminis- 
tration, is sufficiently exposed by the gi'oss inconsistency of 
their deeds. When men like Franklin Pierce, who played 
his part in the infamous Mexican War, that can be defended 
by no principles of humanity or righteousness, talk about 
the injustice and cruelty of warring against the rebels, it 
is plain to see their meaning. It is not probable that 
politicians of the baser sort, like Seymour and Woods, who 
connived at the violence and murder of a New- York mob, 
are very conscientious in their denunciation of the Presi- 
dent's way of putting down the Rebellion. Men who 
have no scruples in creating animosities, and fomenting 
strife at the North, cannot be very honest in their fears 
that the Government will not deal justly and mercifully 
with the rebel South. The sham of all such opposition to 
the Administration is apparent ; and the ma,jor part of the 
hostility to Mr. Lincoln is precisely of this character. 

The writer in the " North- American Review " to whom 
we have I'eferred has so happily rebuked one or two things 
in this line of opposition, that we make a brief quotation. 
Speaking of Mr. Lincoln and his enemies, he says, — 

" At first he was so slow, that he tired out all those who see no 
evidence of progress but in blowing up the engine ; then he was so 



52 THE PIOXEER BOY AS PRESIDENT. 

fast, that he took the breath away from those who think there is 
no getthig on safely while there is a spark of fire under the boilers. 
God is the only being who has time enough ; but a prudent man, 
■who knows how to seize occasion, can commonly make a shift to 
find as much as he needs. Mr. Lincoln, as it seems to us in re- 
viewing his career, though we have sometimes in our impatience 
thought otherwise, has always waited, as a wise man should, till 
the right moment brought up all his reserves." 

Again : " We have no sympathy to spare for the pretended 
anxieties of men, who, only two years gone, were willing that 
Jefferson Davis should break all the Ten Commandments together, 
and would now impeach Mr. Lincoln for a scratch on the surface of 
the tables where they are engraved." 

This class of people are the authors of the wail that has 
been raised against " arbitrary arrests," as they call them. 
Because the President, faithful to his oath of office, which 
obligates him to set aside the writ of habeas corpus when 
it is necessary for the public safety, has arrested men who 
are in complicity with the rebels, and doing all they can to 
aid the enemies of their country, this groundless and 
miserable cry of hostility has been raised. True loyal 
souls, all through the free States, feel that, if more South- 
ern traitors, like Marshal Kane, Vallandigham, and their 
associate conspirators, had been arrested and imprisoned, it 
would not only have been an act of clear justice, but our 
cause would have been greatly promoted. The loyal peo- 
ple generally approve these arrests of treasonable men, and 
posterity will wonder that no more of this class were 
deprived of their liberty to aid the rebels. 

The enemies of the Administration made all the tumult 
possible over the President's suspension of the writ of 
habeas corpus, wlien they knew perfectly well, or ought to 
have known, that it was done under that provision of the 



HIS ADMINISTRATION. 53 

Constitution, which, in cases of invasion or rebellion, per- 
mits the writ to be suspended when the public safety 
requires it. Also an act of Congress, approved March 3, 
18G3, empowered the President to put in force this 
safeguard. In his opinion, and in the opinion of all true, 
loyal men, the time had come for using this stringent 
measure of public defence. The very men who raised the 
outcry against the President for this fearless act were 
doing aU they could to discourage enlistments, multiply 
deserters, and embarrass the Government; and the wis- 
dom of this act of Mr. Lincoln is learned from the fact, 
that it greatly circumscribed their traitorous business. 
The country has reason to rejoice that the President had 
the boldness to adopt this necessary measure. 

The friends of Gen. M'Clellan have attempted to shield 
him from disgrace by asserting that the President inter- 
fered with his plans, and did not sustain him. Happily, 
we have a tribunal that proves the injustice and falsehood 
of this allegation. The testimony before the Congi-es- 
sional Committee on the Conduct of the War shows that 
Gen. M'Clellan had his own way, and was amply sustained 
by the President and War Department. (See Part I. of 
Report on Conduct of the War.) Indeed, that Report does 
much more. It proves, by the most incontrovertible evi- 
dence, that the President is a more competent military 
leader than M'Clellan himself, if the latter was sincere in 
all his measures. Let the reader mark well this point. 
We assert, and will prove, that,«f Gen. M'Clellan was 
sincere in his views and measures, Mr. Lincoln is the 
better general of the two. Among the many points of 
interest established before the Conmiittee are the fol- 
hjwins : — 



54 THE PIOXEER BOY AS PRESIDENT. 

The President urged that so large an army should be 
divided into corps, for the better handling of it ; and every 
military officer whom he consulted indorsed his opinion. 
Yet Gen. Bl'Clellan steadily opposed the measure ; so that,. 
as the Committee on the Conduct of the AVar say (Part I. 
page 7), " the division of the army corps was not even 
begun until after the movement of the army in March 
(18G2) had commenced, and tlieii only in pursuance of the 
direct and repeated orders of the President.'" 

The Committee add, " Gen. M'Clellan, however, con- 
tinued to oppose the organization of the army into array 
corps, as will be seen from the following despatch to him 
from the Secretary of War, dated May 9, 18 62: — 

" Tlie President is luiwilling to have the army-corps organiza- 
tion broken up (M'Clellan insisted upon breaking it up) ; and yet lie 
is unwilling that the commanding-general shall bjf trammelled and 
embarrassed in actual skirmishing, collision with the enemy, and on 
the eve of an expected great battle. You, tlierefore, may temporu- 
rilij suspend that organization in the armj' imder your immediate 
command, and adopt any you see fit, until further orders." 

Gen. M'Clellan stood alone in his views upon this sub- 
ject, while the views of the President were sustained by 
every other general. The Committee say, that the testi- 
mony of the generals before them was " remarkably unani- 
mous " for the army corps. Subsequent experience, too, 
has sustained the President's measure. The President 
said, in his letter to Gen. M'Clellan of May 9, 18G2, "I 
ordered the army-corps organization, not only on the unani- 
mous oj)inion of the twelve generals of divisions, but also 
on the unanimous opinion of every 7nilitary man I could 
get an opinion from, and every modern military authority, 
yourself only excepted." 



HIS ADMINISTRATION. 55 

Again: in the fall of 18G1, the President desu-ed to 
adoi^t measures to prevent tlie rebels blockading the Poto- 
mac. Subsequently he seconded the efforts of the Navy 
Department to effect this object, which could be accom- 
plished only by the combined action of the army and navy. 
But Gen. M'Clellan opposed the measure; and finally, by 
duplicity, frustrated the whole plan : whereupon, the Com- 
mittee say, " Capt. Craven threw up his command on the- 
Potomac, and applied to be sent to sea ; saying, that by 
remaining here, and doing nothing, he was but losing his 
own reputation, as the blame for permitting the Potomac 
to be blockaded would be imputed to him, and to the 
flotilla under his command." (See Report on Conduct of 
the War, Part I. pp. 7-9.) 

If the views of the President had been carried out, 
instead of Gen. M'Clellan's, the country would never have 
experienced the mortification of seeing the Potomac block- 
aded for months. 

Again : the President was opposed to the do-nothing 
policy of M'Clellan through the winter of 'Gl and '02. 
He believed that the rebels should be attacked at Manas- 
sas, and not allowed to escape ; and his opinion was sus- 
tained by the testimony of the best generals before the 
Committee. The President wrote to Gen. M'CIellan, when 
the latter was before Yorktown, " You will do me the 
justice to remember, that I always wished not going down 
the bay in search of a field, instead of fighting at or near 
Ilanassas, as only shifting, and not surmounting, a diffi- 
culty ; that we should find the same enemy, and the same 
or equal intrenchments, at either place." (Conduct of the 
War, Part I. p. 18.) 

The country and our ablest generals were long since 



56 THE PIONEER BOY AS TKESIDENT. 

convinced that the President was right, and Gen. M'Clel- 
lan wrong. 

Gen. M'Clellan differed with the President in re- 
spect to the time of moving the army of the Potomac. 
M'Clellan was for delay ; the President, for action. The 
former believed that our cause gained by delay : the latter 
^was satisfied that it lost by delay. Therefore the Comrait- 
'tee say, "On the 19th of January, 1862, the President of 
the United States, as Commander-in-chief of the Army and 
Navy, issued orders for a general movement for all the 
armies of the United States, one result of which was 
the series of victories at Fort Henry, Fort Donelson, &c., 
which so electrified the country, and revived the hopes of 
every loyal man in the land." (Conduct of the War, 
Part I. p. 9.) 

If the President had entertained the views of Gen. 
M'Clellan, such cheering results would not have electrified 
the country; and, if Gen. M'Clellan had moved his army 
as early as the President desired, a decisive battle might 
have been fought at Manassas. Certainly a defeat there 
could have been no worse for us than the mortifying failure 
of the Peninsula campaign. 

The President, too, differed from M'Clellan in his plan 
to capture Richmond, although lie did not insist that his 
plan should be adopted. But the following letter, from the 
President to Gen. M'Clellan, on the subject, is not ex- 
celled by any military epistle which Gen. M'Clellan has 
written, in comprehensiveness, practical wisdom, and fore- 
sight : — 

Executive JL.\nsioiS, 

Washington, Feb. 3, 1862. 

Mt dear Sir, — You and I have distinct and different plans 
for a movement of the Army of tlie Potomac, — yours to be down 



HIS ADMl^^ISTEATIOX. 57 

the Chesapeake, up the Eappahannock to Urhanna, and across land 
to the terminus of tlie railroad on York River ; mine to moye 
directly to a point on the railroad south-west of Manassas. If you 
will give me satisfactory answers to the following questions, I will 
gladly yield my plan to yours : — 

1. Does not your plan involve a greatly larger expenditure of 
time and money than mine ■? 

2. Wherein is a victory more certain by your plan than mine 1 
8. Wherein is a victory inore valuable by your plan than mine ■? 

4. In fact, would it not be less valuable in this, that it would 
break no great line of the enemy's communication, while mine 
would 1 

5. In case of disaster, would not a safe retreat be more difficult 
by your plan than by mine f 

Yours truly, A. Lincoln. 

Major-Gen, M'Clellan, 

Again : the President differed with Gen. M'Clellan in 
respect to the manner of attacking Yorktown. Mr. Lin- 
coln did not wish that he should determine upon a siege, 
believing that the line of the enemy's works might be 
pierced there, and Yorktown be isolated, cutting off re- 
enforcements, and thereby capturing the whole rebel force. 
The' testimony befoi'e the Congressional Committee proved 
that the best officers of the army were of the President's 
opinion ; and Gen. Hamilton made an application for per- 
mission to pierce the enemy's line of works with his division ; 
but Gen. M'Clellan took no notice of it. The best officers 
testified that the siege of four weeks demoralized the army 
more than an unsuccessful assault would have done. It 
was proved, also, that the place was not re-enforced until 
after the rebels saw that a siege was determined upon, so 
that it would have easily fallen. 

The rebel Gen. Magruder, who commanded at York- 
town, said in his official Report, " Ilis [M'Clellan's] skii'- 
3* 



58 ■ THE nONEER BOr AS PKESIDENT. 

mishers wei'e all thrown forward on this and the suc- 
ceeding day, and energetically felt our whole line, but were 
everywhere repulsed by the steadiness of our troops. Thus 
with five thousand men, exclusive of the garrisons, we 
stopped and held in check over one hundred thousand of 
the enemy. Every preparation was made in anticipation 
of another attack by the enemy. The men slept in the 
trenches and under arms ; but, to my utter surprise, he per- 
mitted day after day to elapse without an assault. In a 
few days, the object of this delay was apparent. In every 
direction, in front of our lines, through the intervening 
ivoods and along the open fields, earthworks began to ap- 
pear. Through the energetic action of the Government, 
re-enforcements began to pour in ; a7id each hour the Army 
of the Peninsula grew stronger and stronger, until anxiety 
passed from my mind as to the result of an attack upon 
us." 

President Lincoln was sorely troubled by this unneces- 
sary siege ; and he wrote to Gen. M'Clellan during its 
progress, and in the letter he says, " The country will not 
fail to note — is noting notv — that the present hesitation 
to move vpon an intrenched position is but the story of 
Manassas repeated." — Conduct of the War, Part I. pp. 
17, 18. 

This letter must have stung Gen. M'Clellan to the quick ; 
but he deserved every word of the rebuke ; and the nation 
cannot fail to recognize the superiority of the President's 
views on the subject over those of M'Clellan. And this 
is all the more important, if tlie remark of a prominent 
officer was true, " We lost Richmond at Yorktown." 

We will not multiply examples of this kind, though we 
might add many more from the Committee's Report; These 



HIS ADMINISTRATIOX. 59 

will serve our purpose as well as more, and show the truth 
of our position, that, if Gen. M'Clellan were sincere iu his 
views and measures, then President Lincoln possesses the 
greater military genius of the two. 

We will, however, quote a letter which the President 
wrote to Gen. M'Clellan, Oct. 13, 1862. It exhibits so 
much greater military knowledge than M'Clellan's pro- 
posed views and measures, about which the letter dis- 
courses, that it is worthy of careful perusal. 

It was after the battle of Antietam. The President 
desired that M'Clellan should cross the Potomac, and pur- 
sue and destroy the fleeing rebel army. Many of his 
generals were in favor of this summary measure. But 
M'Clellan hesitated, and made excuses for not moving, 
until the President directed Gen. Ilalleck to telegraph to 
him, " Your army must move now while the roads are 
good." One week thereafter, the following letter in ques- 
tion was penned. (See Conduct of War, Part I. pp. 44- 
4G.) 

My dear Sir, — You remember my speaking to you of wheat 
I called your over-cautiousness. Are you not over-cautious when 
you assume that you cannot do what the enemy is constantly 
doing ? Should you not claim to be at least his equal in prowess, 
and act upon the claim "? 

As I understand, you telegraphed Gen. Halleck that you cannot 
subsist your army at Winchester, unless the railroad from Harper's 
Ferry to that point be put in working order. But the enemy does 
vow subsist his army at Winchester, at a distance nearly twice as great 
from railroad transportation as you would have to do without tlie 
railroad last named. He now wagons from Culpepper Court House, 
which is just about twice as far as you would liave to do from Har- 
per's Ferr}'. He is certainly not more than half as well provided 
with wagons as you are. I certainly sliould be pleased for you to 
liave the advantage of the railroad from Harper's Ferry to Win- 



60 THE PIONEER BOY AS PRESIDENT. 

Chester ; but it wastes all the remainder of autumn to give it to 
you, and, in fact, ignores tlie question of time, which cannot and 
must not be ignored. 

Again : one of the standard maxims of war, as you know, is " to 
operate upon the enemy's communications as much as possible 
without exposuig your own." You seem to act as if this applied 
against you, but cannot apply in your favor. Change positions 
with the enemy, and think you not that he would break your com- 
munication with Richmond within the next twenty -four hours ? 
You dread his going into Pennsylvania. But, if he does so in full 
force, he gives up his communications to you absolutely, and you 
have notliing to do but to follow and ruin him : if he does so with 
less than full force, fall upon and beat what is left behind all the easier. 

Exclusive of the water-line, j'ou are now nearer Richmond than 
the enemy is by the route that you can and he must take. Why can 
you not reach there before him, unless you admit that he is more 
than your equal on a march ? llis route is the arc of a circle, while 
yours is the chord. The roads are as good on yours as on his. 

You know I desired, but did not order, you to cross the 
Potomac below, instead of above, the Shenandoah and Blue Ridge. 
My idea was, that this would at once menace the enemj-'s commu- 
nications, which I would sieze, if he would permit. If he should 
move northward, I would follow him closely, holding his commu- 
nications. If he should prevent om- seizing his communications, 
and move towards Richmond, I would press closely to him, fight 
liim if a favorable opportunity should present, and at least try to 
beat him to Richmond on the inside track. I say, " try : " if we 
never try, we shall never succeed. If he make a stand at Win- 
chester, moving neither north nor south, I would fight him there, 
on the idea, that, if we cannot beat him ivhen he bears the wastage of 
coming to us, we never can tchen we bear the wastage of going to him. 
This proposition is a simple truth, and is too important to be lost 
siglit of for a moment. In coming to us, he tenders us an advan- 
tage which we should not waive. We should not so operate as to 
merely drive him away. As we must beat liim somewhere, or fail 
finally, ice can do it, if at all, easier near to us than far away. If we 
cannot beat the enemy where he now is, we never can he again 
being within the intrenchments of Richmond. 



HIS ADMINISTilATION. Gl 

Recurring to the idea of going to Richmond on the inside track, 
the facility of supplying from the side-M'ay from the enemy is 
remarkable, as it were, by the diflerent s2)okes of a wheel, extend- 
ing from the hub towards the rim; and this whether you move 
directly by the chord or on the inside arc, hugging the Blue Ridge 
more closely. The chord-hne; as you see, carries you by Aldie, 
Haymarket, and Fredericksburg ; and you see how turnpikes, rail- 
roads, and finally the Potomac, by Aquia Creek, meet you at all 
points from Washington. The same, only the lines lengthened a 
little, if you press closer to the Blue Ridge part of the way. The 
gaps through the Blue Ridge I understand to be about the follow- 
iug distances from Harper's Ferry : to wit. Vestal's, five miles ; 
Gregory's, thirteen ; Snicher's, eighteen; Ashby's, twenty-eight; 
Manassas, thirty-eight ; Chester, forty -five ; and Thornton's, fifty- 
three. I should think it preferable to take the route nearest the 
enemy, disabling him to make an important move without your 
knowledge, and compelling him to keep his forces together for 
dread of you. The gaps would enable you to attack, if you should 
wish. For a great part of the way, you would be practically be- 
tween the enemy and both Washington and Richmond, enabling 
us to spare you the greatest number of troops from here. When, 
at length, running for Richmond ahead of him enables him to 
move this way, if he does so, turn, and attack him in the rear ; 
but I think he should be engaged long before such point is reached. 
It is all easy, if our troops march as well as the enemy ; and it is un- 
inanJij to say they cannot do it. This letter is in no sense an order. 

Yours truly, ■ A. Lincoln. 

Major-Gen. SI'Clellan. 

No plan or document emanating from Gen. M'Clellan, 
since the outbreak of the Rebellion, bears, so unmistakably 
as this letter of the President, a coi-rect knowledge of the 
military position, a clear and comprehensive idea of the 
manner of conducting the campaign, and a bird's-eye view 
of the advantages and disadvantages of this way of de- 
stroying the rebel army, and capturing Richmond. And 
we would suggest to those persons who have complained 



62 THE riONEER BOY AS PRESIDENT. 

of the President, at times, because he did not prosecute the 
war more vigorously, that they cast the blame where it 
does uot belong. "With two or three such generals as 
M'Clellan in the field to manage, a President would have 
his hands full of business, without any other official 
duties. 

A class of true antislaveiy men have doubted Mr. Liu- 
coin's fidelity to freedom. Utterly ignoring his antecedents, 
which have always exhibited the most decided hostility to 
slavery, they have sometimes talked as if he desired 
to save slavery. While they cannot put their finger upon 
a single act or speech of his, since he entered public lift', 
that favors the institution, they nevertheless fear that he is 
not tx'ue to liberty. How strange ! Let them ponder tliu 
following facts : — 

1. The rebels have denounced Mr. Lincoln more for his 
hostility to slavery than for any thing else. As soon as he 
was nominated for the Presidency, they began to point to 
his antislavery antecedents to show that he would not favor 
the " peculiar institution " of the South. 

2. In Congress he distinguished himself as an antislavery 
man by introducing an amendment to a bill relating to the 
slave-trade in flie District of Columbia. His amendment 
provided for the abolition of slavery there ; and it is a some- 
what remarkable coincidence, that the man who labored to 
carry this measure through Congress in 1848 should hc- 
come the President of the United States twelve years 
thereafter, and, by his administration, slavery be abolished 
in that District. He was defeated then; but he is tri- 
umphant now. 

3. Read the speeches of Judge Douglas in the memora- 
ble canvass of Illinois wdth Mr. Lincoln. One of his chief 



HIS ADMINISTRATIOX. 63 

points of attack upon Mr. Lincoln was his antislavery 
antecedents. lie endeavored to cast reproach upon him 
for his opposition to slavery. 

4. See what has been accomplished under his Adminis- 
tration. First, slavery abolished in the District of Colum- 
bia ; second, slavery prohibited for ever in the Territories ; 
third, the Proclamation t)f Emancipation ; fourth, negroes 
employed as soldiers ; fifth, the recognition of Hayti and 
Liberia ; sixth, the African slave-trade restrained as never 
before. He who is not satisfied with this progress must 
find frequent occasion to murmur at Divine Providence. 

When William Lloyd Garrison, than whom a more 
radical abolitionist does not live, is satisfied with the Presi- 
dent's policy on this score, surely they who have never 
asked to be considered so thoroughly antislavery ought to 
be content with these results. Mr. Garrison says, in sup- 
pox'ting Mr. Lincoln's Administration, " I think every 
thing looks auspicious for our country. It seems to me 
that the omens are all good, and that we are making prog- 
ress in the right direction every day, and every hour of 
the day. I believe, that, under this Administration, tve 
have advanced a quarter of a century in a single year ; and 
therefore the President, however slow in comparison with 
our wishes or aspirations, instead of being an ' ox-team,' 
has beaten even the * Birmingham train.' . . . My friends, 
if every thing has not been done that we could desire, or 
that justice demands, let us see how much has been done. 
Is it not far beyond all that ice could have rationally ex- 
pected^ The work of a quarter of a century done up in 
a single year should make us hopeful and patient, and 
encourage us to believe that all minor inequalities will be 
looked after in due season." 



64 THE PIONEER BOY AS PRESIDENT, 

lion. Mr. Arnold, member of the United-States House of 
Representatives, from Illinois, the intimate acquaintance 
of Mr. Lincoln for twenty years, has so well presented this 
point in a speech before the House, that we quote the 
closing paragraphs: — 

" However others have doubted and hesitated, Mr. Lincoln's 
faith in the success of our cause has never been shaken. He has 
been radical in aU that concerns slavery, and conservative hi all 
that relates to hberty. 

" Ills course upon the slavery question has shown his love of 
freedom, his sagacity, and his wisdom. From the beginning, he 
has beUeved that the Rebelhon would dig the grave of slavery. 
He has allowed the suicide of slavery to be consummated by the 
slaveholders themselves. Many have blamed him for going too 
fast in liis antislavery measures : more, I thuik, have blamed him 
for going too slow, of which I have been one. History will perhaps 
give him credit for acting with great and wise discretion. The 
calm, inteUigent, philosophic abohtionists of the Old World, uninflu- 
enced by the passions which surroimd and color our judgments, 
send, across the ocean, congratulation and admiration on the success 
and wisdom of his course. The three leading features of his Ad- 
ministration on the subject of slavery are, — 

" 1. His Proclamation of Emancipation. 

" 2. The employment of negroes as soldiers. 

" 3. The Amnesty Proclamation, which makes Liberty the cor- 
ner-stone of reconstruction. 

" The Emancipation Proclam.ation will hve in history as one of 
those great events which measure the advance of the world. The 
historian will rank it alongside with the acquisition oi Magna Charta 
and the Declaration of Independence. Tliis great State paper was 
issued after the most careful and anxious reflection, and concludes 
with these solemn words : — 

" ' And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, 
warranted by the Constitution and military necessity, I invoke the 
considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Al- 
mighty God.' 

" The considerate judgment of mankind on both sides of the 



HIS ADMES^STRATION. 65 

\ 
ocean has already approved it ; and God has seemed to favor it 
with a series of victories to our arms never witnessed before its 
issue, — a series of victories for wliich we are more indebted to 
the President than to any other man." 

" But," says one of this class, who can scarcely wait for 
God to bring the children of Israel out of bondage, " the 
President modified Fremont's proclamation." True; and 
why? Simply to make it conform to the Act of Con- 
gress of Aug. 6, 18G1 ; and surely this ought to have 
been the case. "VYhen the President saw the proclamation, 
he wrote to Gen. Fremont, pointing out its nonconformity 
to the Act of Congi'ess, and suggesting that P^'remont 
himself should change it to conform thereto. But Gen. 
Fi-emont preferred that the President should do it ; and so 
Mr. Lincoln wrote another communication, dated Sept. 11, 
18G1, from which we extract the following: "On seeing 
your proclamation of Aug. 30, / perceive no general 
objection to it : the particular clause, however, in relation 
to the confiscation of property and the liberation of slaves, 
appeared to me to be objectionable in its nonconformity to 
the Act of Congress, passed the 6th of last August, upon 
the same subjects." 

" But there was Gen. Hunter's proclamation," says the 
objector : " the President revoked it." True ; and why ? 
Simply because no one has a right to issue such a procla- 
mation but the President, and that, too, as a military 
necessity. But Gen. Hunter did not issue his proclama- 
tion " from any alleged military necessity growing out of 
the operations in his department, but from a theoretical 
incompatihility between slavery and martial law." Two 
good reasons, then, why the President should interfere ! 
In his proclamation revoking Gen. Hunter's order, the 



60 THE PIOXEER BOY AS PRESIDENT. 

President expressly states that the right to free the slaves 
belongs to himself, and intimates that he may do it when 
'• it shall have become a necessity, indispensable to the 
maintenance of the Government ; " and, in view of what lie 
shall be obliged to do (proclaim liberty to the captives), 
he entreats (in the same proclamation) the citizens of the 
slave States to adopt his previous measure of the gradual 
abolition of slavery, saying, " To the people of these States, 
now, I mostly appeal. I do not argue : I beseech you to 
make the arguments for yourselves. You cannot, if you 
would, be blind to the signs of the times. ... So much 
good has not been done by one effort in all past time, as, in 
the providence of God, it is now your high privilege to do. 
May the vast fifture not have to lament that you have 
neglected it ! " 

How earnest and serious is the President in this matter ! 
" If you do not abolish slavery, I shall," is the amount of 
the above appeal to the slaveholding States. The two 
documents that interfered with Fremont's and Hunter's 
proclamations prove that Mr. Lincoln was not only in favor 
of liberating the slaves, but was expecting the time would 
come when he must do it as a military necessity. Now that 
he has done it, why make so much bluster because he did 
not do it sooner ? Rather, with Mr. Garrison, be thankful 
that it is done at all, and adore Divine Providence for 
putting it into the heart of the President to manage the 
difficult question in such a manner as to unite the masses 
of the people, and thereby avert the terrible disaster 
that would have resulted to our cause from dividing the 
loyal country into factions by more hasty and violent 
measures. 

Even "Wendell Phillips has recognized the duty of the 



HIS ADMIXISTRATIOX. 67 

President to adhere to the Constitution, so far as possible, 
in deahng with slavery ; and the following extracts from 
his speeches are a complete indorsement of the views Ave 
have presented. At the Music Hall, in April, 18G1, he 
Raid, — 

" Abraliam Lincoln knows nothing, has a right to know nothing, 
but tlie Constitution of the United States. The South is all 
wrong, and the Administration is all right." 

At Framingham, July 4, 1861, he said, — 

" What do I ask of the Government ? I do not ash it to announce 
a polici/ of emancipation now : it is not sti'ong enough to do it. We can 
announce it; the people can discuss it: the Administration is 
NOT STRONG ENOUGH TO ANNOUNCE IT. I do not carc whediCF it 
means it or not. It were utter ruin to announce it now. 
. . . An honest Administration, an honest President, stands hesi- 
tating, dislrustiug the strength of the popular feeling behind him. . . . 
Abraham Lincoln, Salmon P. Chase, Montgomery Blair, have not 
the heart nor the ivish to thrust back into the hell of Virginia slavery 
one smgle contraband ardcle in Fortress ISIonroe. They never will 
do it. . . . My policy, therefore, is, give the Administration generous 
sympathy. Give it all the confidence for honesty of purpose you 
can. They mean now only the Union; but they are willing roe 
shoidd make them mean any thing more we please. Abraham Lincoln 
means to do liis constitutional duty in the crisis. / have faith in 
his honesty." 

Mark, that this radical abolitionist expressly declared in 
the above, that the President was in advance of public 
opinion on the question of liberty ; and this has always 
been the fact. The violent and extensive opposition to all 
his radical measures against slavery is proof of this. One 
year later, he said, — 

"I find great encouragement everywhere. I find it in the dis- 
position of tlie President. I believe he means what he said to the 
Bcrder-State senators and representatives, when, at the annoimce- 



68 THE nOXEER BOY AS TRESIDENT. 

ment of liis message, he summoned tliem to his presence, — ' Gen- 
tlemen, d^n't talk to me about slavery : you love it ; I hate it. 
You mean it shall live : I mean it shall die.' 

"Lincoln is ahead of any thing you have said. The State of 
Massachusetts is offering him to day millions. What he wants is an 
indorsement and an encouragement. What the Senate want is a policy 
l)ronounced by the people." 

We have referred to the fact, that the rebels denounce 
Mr. Lincohi as a tyrant and usurper, while some loynl 
people regard him as altogether too lenient. That Mr. 
Lincoln has been kind, conciliatory, and forbearing, no 
sane man will deny. But, so far from reproaching his 
Administration, it is highly honorable to him and the 
nation. If he had manifested the same spirit of revenge and 
barbarism that has been exhibited by the enemy, this civil 
strife would have been divested of every feature of humanity 
and civilized warfare, and resulted in indiscriminate and 
savage butchery. Under his tolerant yet firm and resolute 
guidance, the Government stands forth to-day a model of na- 
tional forbearance, to challenge the admiration of the world. 
To crush the Rebellion, and restore peace to our distracted 
land, with this tolerant spirit, will secure to us a better 
name and greater respect, when the war is over. When 
Saul hunted David with savage ferocity, the latter fled 
with his men to the Cave of Engedi for rest and safety. 
As he reposed in the rear of the dark recess, who should 
enter, one day, but Saul and his blood-thirsty warriors ! 
Saul did not know that David was there, although he was 
pursuing him. Wliat an exultant moment for David ! 
Saul was now completely within his power. David could 
fall upon his foe, and speedily annihilate him ; and his 
men thought it was a capital chance. They said, " Behold 
the day, of which the Lord said unto thee, Behold, I will 



HIS ADMINISTKATIOlSr. 69 

deliver thine enemy into thine hand, that thou mayest do 
to him as it shall seem good unto thee." 

But David shrank from such a bloody slaughter. He 
simply advanced secretly, and cut off the skirt of SauVs 
robe, just to show him that he might have cut off his head 
as easily. Doubtless some of his soldiers called him a 
" fool " for sparing the enemy, who had occasioned him so 
much distress. But David acted his own lenient pleasure, 
and the world now calls him magnanimous. His cause 
ti'iumphed with all his forbearance, and the character of the 
leader appears more noble and attractive in cousecfuence. 
In like manner, when this war is over, and the humane 
and forbearing policy of our President appears in contrast 
with the barbarity of the Rebel Government, every loyal 
citizen will proudly turn to this feature of his Administra- 
tion, and call him magnanimous. 

Much has been said and written about the President's 
plan of reconstruction. It has been misunderstood, mis- 
represented, and vilified. His plan is simply this, and 
plain common sense anywhere can comprehend it. Be- 
lieving that State governments only have been overthrown 
by tlie Rebellion, Mr. Lincoln proposes to reconstruct 
State governments alone. How ? Just as it was done in 
Virginia in the early part of the w^ar. Before his atten- 
tion could be given to tlie subject particularly, Pi-ovidence 
seems to have furnished a precedent in Western Virginia. 
The thing was done there, and worked well : wily may it 
not be done elsewhere, successfully, by the people who are 
loyal to the Constitution and Government of the United 
States ? The loyal people are the State, by the President's 
plan. The rebels do not take a state out of the Union, 
since the loyal people are the State : they only take them- 



70 THE nOXEER BOY AS PEESIDENT. 

selves out, and subvert the Government, leaving the loyal 
people to reconstruct the Government. The President's 
proclamation simply provides a method, by which all per- 
sons, who have incurred the penalties of treason, may 
return to their allegiance, with certain exceptions ; and 
also a plan for establishing loyal State-governments, likt? 
that in Virginia, in all other States where the Rebellioa 
has subverted the loyal governments. Is not this enough, 
and well? Does any one ask if this plan will destroy 
slavery ? We reply by asking. How is it possible to suce 
slavery by this plan ? War has emancipated the slaves ; 
and, before a rebel can be restored to his forfeited rights, 
he must swear to support the rights of all, which includes 
the rights of emancipated slaves. Gen. Gi-ant has well 
said, — 

" The people of the North need not quarrel over the institution 
of slavery. What Vice-President Stephens acknowledges as the 
corner-stone of the Confederacy is already knocked out. Slavery* 
is already dead, and cannot be resiurected. It would take a stand- 
ing army to maintain slavery in the South, if we were to take 
possession to-day, guaranteeing to the South all their former con- 
stitutional privileges. I never was an abolitionist, not even what 
would be called antislavery : but I try to judge fairly and honest- 
ly; and it became patent to ray mind, early in the Kebellion, that 
the North and South could never live at peace with each other, 
except as one nation, and that without slavery. As anxious as I 
am to see peace established, / ivould not, therefore, be willing to see 
any settlement until this question is for ever settled." 

THE people's choice. 

It is not strange, then, that the loyal people demand 
that Mr. Lincoln sliould serve them another term in the 
Presidential chair. It would be a mark of base ingrati- 



THE people's choice. 71 

tude If it were otherwise. Nay, more : it would prove 
that the people are insensible to their perils. For to 
change our President in the face of the enemy would be 
as suicidal as to change a competent general on the eve of 
battle. A veteran soldier roughly replied to the interroga- 
tive, whether the soldiers desired the re-election of Mr. 
Lincoln, " Why, of course they do. We have all re- 
enlisted to see this thing through, and old Abe must re-en- 
list too. He mustered us in, and must stay where he is 
until he has mustered us out. We'll never give it up until 
every rebel acknowledges that he is the constitutional 
President. When they got beat at the election, they 
kicked out of the traces, and declared that they would not 
submit to a black Republican President ; but they must. 
We will show them that elections in this country have got 
to stand. Old Abe must stay in the White House until 
every rebel climbs down, and agrees to behave himself, 
and obey the laws of his country. There mustn't be any 
fooling in this thing ; for I Avouldn't give a copper for this 
country if the beaten side has a right to bolt after an 
election : it ivouldn't be jit to live in." 

There is more truth than elegance in the soldier's words. 
His philosophy is good, and loyal men should adopt it. 
But one sentiment pervades the entire army ; and that is, 
" Abraham Lincoln tpust serve another term." Gen. Neal 
Dow, who was released from Libby Prison a few months 
since, said in a speech at Portland, — 

" At present, the rebels are looking anxiously at movements in 
the North in relation to the next Presidential election. Their 
hope is, that some other man than Mr. Lincoln may be nominated 
and elected to the Presidency. The election of any other person 
they will regard as a sure indication that the loyal North tires of 



72 THE riOXEER BOY AS PRESIDENT. 

the war, and means to change its policy in relation to it. The 
leaders of the Rebellion have now no other hope of success than 
this ; and their hope is, that those may come into power who will 
say to them, • Erring sisters, depart in peace ! ' The officers in 
Libby Prison, who had abundant opportunities to see the feeling of 
the rebels on this subject, were anxious that the loyal men of the 
North should perceive the danger of lending any encouragment to 
it. No man has a greater respect than myself for Mr. Chase and 
Mr. Fremont, nor a more entire conviction of their loyalty, and 
their ability to conduct the affairs of the country with lionor to 
themselves, and to the advantage of the nation ; but, for this time, 
I should regard the nomination of any other person than Mr. 
Lincoln as a public misfortune." 

It is laughable to observe the inconsistent reasoning of 
the opponents of Mr. Lincoln in the Republican party. 
Horace Greeley is one ; and he wrote an article against the 
President's renomination, which is really an argument in 
his favor. For Mr. Greeley says that Mr. Lincoln " has 
done well;" that "/<e has honcstli/, faithfully done what he 
deemed required of him by patriotism and duty." True, 
he says that Mr. Lincoln has made " mistakes : " but he 
takes pains to offset that by saying that " we all have ; " 
thus putting him on the same footing with other public 
men in respect to mistakes. He admits, too, that the 
President has served through " a very arduous and trying 
struggle ; " and yet he has done so well, that " Avere he 
now to announce (we use Mr. Greeley's language) his 
peremptory withdrawal from public life on the 4th of 
March, 1865, the closing year of his Presidential term 
woidd be one of the proudest and happiest of his life." 
Surely this is rare indorsement of Mr. Lincoln's administra- 
tion, and proof that he is the best man to serve the coun- 
try another Presidential term. How much wiser to take 
one whom the country has tried in the most perilous time, 



THE people's choice. 73 

and who merits such unqualified approbation, than to run 
the risk of trying a new man ! Mr. Lincoln is qualified to 
do even better another Presidential term than he has done 
this ; for he has now that best of all qualifications, — ex- 
perience. He has become acquainted with the machine, 
and knows how to run it ! 

Mr. Greeley fears that Mr. Lincoln would not be re- 
elected if he should be renominated ; and one reason that 
he gives for this opinion is, that " no President, for thirty 
years, has been re-elected." Well, all we have to say in 
reply is, that it has been no credit to the nation, if, in all 
this time, no man has been found fit to serve the country, 
in this capacity, eight years. But now that we have a 
President who merits the above praise, even from Mr. 
Greeley, let us show to the world that we have a man who 
is qualified to serve the Republic, in this high position, 
twice four years. It will honor the nation. 

Strange that such reasoning should have dropped from 
the pen of so stalwart a writer as Mr. Greeley ! Is it 
statestnan-like ? Rather, does it not smack more of the 
politician than it does of the statesman and patriot? 

Contrast with Mr. Greeley's views the following words 
of his more radical friend, Mr. Phillips, spoken since the 
Proclamation of Emancipation was issued : — 

" I, for one, have no objection to the Presidency of Abraham 
Lincoln for four or eight years longer. I told the President himself, 
— and I believed it then, and I beUeve it now ; I meant it then, 
and I mean it now, — that the man who would honestly put his 
hand to the plough of that proclamation, and execute it, this people 
icould not allow to quit ichile the experiment was trying. Whoever 
starts the great experiment of emancipation, and honestly devotes 
his energies to making it a fact, deserves to hold the helm of govern- 
metit till that experiment is finished." 

4 



74 THE PIONEER BOY AS PRESIDENT. 

Mr. Lincoln was never an office-seeker : he is not now. 
He was never accused of pulling the wires to secure his 
. own nomination to any office. On the other hand, again 
and again, he has labored for the promotion of others, when 
his fi'iends desired to pi'omote him. In 1854, he stumped 
the State of Illinois, in connection Avith other speakers; and 
the result was, that, for the first time, the State had a 
Republican legislature. That legislature had the choice 
of a United-States senator to make, and they desired to 
choose Mr. Lincoln. But he entreated them to elect Mr. 
Trumbull ; and it was only by his own earnest appeals that 
they were induced to drop Mr. Lincoln's name. Subse- 
quently, he was offered the nomination for Governor of 
Illinois ; but he declined the honor in favor of Mr. Bissell. 
And, when Mr. Seymour became Governor of New York, 
Mr. Lincoln generously sent the message- to him,- that he 
(Mr. Seymour) had it within his power to be the next 
President of the United States. He had so little thought 
or desire for the office himself, that he would gladly wel- 
come a political opponent to it, pi-ovided he would labor to 
save the Union. Few public men have been so magnani- 
mous as this. Few have b'een great or good enough to be 
so magnanimous. Truly the hand of Providence is mani- 
fest in the fact^ that we have not a time-serving office- 
seeker for President in this fearful crisis ! And is it not a 
singular circumstance, that Gen. Fremont should now be 
a candidate for the Presidency, in opposition to Mr. Lin- 
coln, who canvassed the State of Illinois for Frenaont in 
1856? Alas, Fremont ingratitude! 

Foreigners who espouse the side of the North are 
anxious that Mr. Lincoln should be re-elected. Peter 
Sinclair, Esq., of Scotland, who has labored for our cause 



THE people's choice. 75 

twd* years among the operatives of Lancashire, and whose 
labors, in the opinion of many, prevented the recognition of 
the Southern Confederacy, said recently, in a speech in 
Boston, " that the best thing we could do for our cause 
abroad was the re-election of Mr. Lincoln ; that the 
greatest calamity which could befall the loyal States would 
be the failure to continue Mr. Lincoln in office : and he 
(Mr. Sinclair) was of the opinion, that the election of any 
other man would result in the recognition of the South, and 
war with the North ; at any rate, it would stimulate our 
enemies anew, in France and England, to labor for this 
object." 

Hon. George Thompson of England, now visiting this 
country, has repeatedly urged the re-election of Mr. Linfoln, 
in his addresses. At the late radical antislavery conven- 
tion in Boston, he dealt heavy blows upon certain members 
for their attacks upon Mr. Lincoln ; and, rising to speak 
the second time, he said, — 

" I felt that I should be false to my own convictions, and unjust 
towards the party who had been assailed, if I did not rise, and, as 
an Englishman and an abolitionist, give my testimony in favor of 
President Lincoln. . . . 

" We know, too, he has been the architect of his own fortunes ; 
and that, by his industry, probity, high principles, and proverbial 
honesty, he has won his way to the confidence of the American 
people. We know, too, that he was elected President upon a plat- 
form, the ne plus ultra of the antislavery of which was the exclusion 
of slavery from the fifteen hundred thousand square miles of north- 
western territory ; yet, within two years from the time he went 
into the White House, he issued a proclamation giving liberty to 
more than three million of slaves. He has united this great re- 
pubhcan nation in the bonds of diplomatic relationship with the 
hitherto scorned and outlawed negro republics of Hayti and Liberia ; 
and I read in the papers of yesterday that the representative of one 



76 THE PIONEER BOY AS PRESIDENT. 

ft 

of these States was introduced upon the floor of the Senate, and 
received the. same attentions as are usually paid to the ministers of 
foreign countries. He has purged the national District from the 
reproach and pollution of slavery, and has thereby put the national 
brand upon the sin and crime of holding human beings in bondage. 
By formal message and resolution sent to the House of Represen- 
tatives, and by personal interviews with the men from the Border 
States, he has done what he could to promote emancipation in the 
districts which his proclamation could not reach. Thus he has 
gone on from step to step, ever advancing, and never retreating, 
until a series of measures has been accomplished, such as the most 
sanguine amongst us never dreaftied to see carried during the pres- 
ent generation. They have been measures so grand, so beneficent 
and all-important, that we who have contemplated them from the 
opposite side of the ocean have given God thanks on your behalf, 
and have rejoiced with you in the triumphs you have won. . . . 

" When I look to the difficulties he has had to surmount, the war- 
ring elements by Which he has been sm-rounded, the enemies within 
and without that have compassed his de^ruction, and to the com- 
parative fewness of the numbers of those who have been prepared 
to sustain him in really radical measures, I cannot but regard him as 
the man for the situation." 

Abraham Lincoln is the people's choice. He has won a 
large place in their affections. They know him as the 
honest man and faithful ruler. They honor him for what 
he is, and what he has done. Posterity will honor him as 
the model President, the champion of Freedom, and the 
Emancipator ! 




PORTRAIT 

OF 

PRESIDENT LINCOLN, 

LITHOGRAPHED IN TINT, 20 INCHES BY 26. 

Price $1.00. 
Sent free by mail, securely packed, on receipt of one dollar. 



Every dwelling-house, place of business, workshop, schoolroom, 
hotel, or place of public resort, should be adorned with a copy of this 
likeness of the President. 



PUBLISHED BY 

WALKER, WISE, AND COMPANY, 
BOSTON. 



The '* Campaifpi JDociunent.*' 



V«"W to i-\4-'\' 



Cljarattcr aitb ^ublit Snbkcs 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



^ 




WILLIAM M. THAYER, 

At'THOn OF THE "IMOXEEP, BOY," THE " YOfTHS HISTOUV OK THE REBEI.UOX." ETC. 



^ 



S BOSTON: 
WALKER, WISE, AND COMPANY, 
245, Washington Stkkkt. 
1864. 



Ck (&nx\u fife 

OF 

\BRAHAM LINCOLN, 

THE PIONEER BOY. 

By WILLIAM M. THAYER. 

rlllS book coutains the full and reliable life of President 
Lincoln, from tlie time lie was seven years of age until he 
ook liis seat in the Presidential chair. 

This is the authentic and authorized life of the President, 
,s is shown by the subjoined letter from the son of the Presi- 
dent, a student in Harvard College : — 
! 

Cambridge, April 17, 1863. 
Iev. Mr. Thayer, 

Dear Sir, — I received, a few days since, a copy of the " Pioneer 
Joy," for which I wish to retuni my thanks. 

I am very much pleased with the book, as an interesting story; and I 
ind tliat, in reading it, many things are recalled which I had forgotten. 

You have been singularly successful in avoiding errors ; as I find I have, 
it some time, heard nearly every thing you narrate, from a "reliable 
gentleman." 

With the best wishes for its success, I remain. 
Yours vei-y truly, 

ROBT. T. LINCOLN. 

It is for sale by every Bookseller and Newsman in the 
country. 

Price $1.25. 

Will be sent by mail, postage free, to any part of the country, 
on receipt of One Dollar and twenty-five cents, by the Publishers. 

ENERGETIC AGENTS wanted to sell it in every town in 
the United States. Apply at once to 

WALKER, WISE, & CO., 

Publishers, liosfon. Mass, 



* ^ 









^^' 









,.5 -:> 






s^ V^ 



V, 






*:<- v^~ 



<%, 







^oo^ : 








X^" 


V 

'*',' 







^-^^^ 



■^vt. <-•• 



g 01.9 zee uoo 



iilillllillliBiniiiH' 



